The UCI announced Wednesday that SD Worx (formerly Boels Dolmans) has been awarded a women's World Tour license for the 2021-2023 season. The powerful Dutch team, featuring double world champion Anna van der Breggen, will join eight other top-level world teams in 2021.

Boels Dolmans applied for a World Tour license last year, but was denied due to financial issues. At the time, sponsors Boels Rental and Dolmans Landscape had not renewed their contracts, and the team was looking for a new title sponsor. The team then signed a four-year contract with SD Worx.

According to a UCI press release, the team reapplied for a World Tour license this year, and after reviewing the ethical, financial, and administrative requirements, the licensing committee decided to award the license for the years 2021-2023.

In the last year, Alè BTC Ljubljana, Canyon-SRAM, FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope, Mitchelton-Scott, CCC-Liv, Movistar Team Women, Team Sunweb, Trek- There were eight WorldTeams, including Segafredo.

The UCI already had the following five teams that were license holders from 2020 to 2023: Alè BTC Ljubljana Cipollini, Canyon-SRAM, FDJ Nouvelle- Aquitaine Futuroscope, Liv Racing (formerly CCC-Liv), and Trek-Segafredo announced that they would continue to register for World Tour licenses.

There were three teams that the UCI was unable to register directly, and the Licensing Committee went ahead and registered them for the upcoming season. Movistar Team Women, Green Edge Cycling (formerly Mitchelton Scott), and Team DSM (formerly Sunweb).

"The UCI is pleased with the arrival of the ninth UCI Women's World Team (SD Worx) to join the existing eight teams, despite the challenging international health and economic situation.

The UCI has set an annual goal of a two-team system and aims to add a new team each season at the highest level; licenses will be issued from 2020 to 2023: four years if issued in 2020, three years in 2021, and two years in 2022, The validity period will be shorter.

In 2020 there will be 8 teams in the top league; in 2021 a maximum of 12 licenses will be issued, but only 9 teams will be registered at the top level; in 2022 there will be a maximum of 15 teams; in 2022 there will be a maximum of 4 teams registered at the top level; in 2023 there will be a maximum of 4 teams registered at the top level. This means that there are only 6 more teams that can be added to the top level teams in 2022.

"The maximum number of new licenses that can be granted in the 2022 registration process is six teams," the press release states.

According to the UCI website, after 2024, the validity of licenses will be determined by the UCI Women's WorldTeams ranking.