The sporting director of the Spanish team Comunidad Valenciana-Kelme has reacted angrily to their omission from next year's Pro Tour.

Kelme, relegated from cycling's elite division by the UCI this year, was not included on the list of four squads named by the UCI on Wednesday to join the Pro Tour.

Spanish team Euskaltel-Euskadi, Belgium's Davitamon-Lotto, and Italian teams Liquigas and Fassa Bortolo were granted provisional licenses.

They joined 13 other teams named to form the Tour, a new grand-prix-style cycling calendar comprising 28 races, including the three big Tours and former World Cup events.

"The UCI do not care about 25 years of cycling history," an enraged Vicente Belda told Reuters. "We've been a disaster getting the paperwork in on time, I admit, but it now seems that the 20,000 different bits of paper they asked us for is more important than a long and distinguished cycling history.

"The Pro Tour will be the tomb of cycling, it will finish the sport."

Belda was adamant his team would continue in 2005, despite the probable loss of Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, who had said he would leave if the team were not part of the Pro Tour.

Aside from being relegated to cycling's second division, Kelme has been beset by allegations of doping by former rider Jesus Manzano and the late payment of riders. The team was excluded from the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France because of the doping allegations.

Euskaltel said it would be signing new riders to increase their team to 25, the minimum required by Pro Tour organizers.

"We have fulfilled all the requirements, and this is what we were expecting," team sporting director Julian Gorospe told Reuters. "They have respected our sporting and professional history as a team."

Teams granted provisional licenses by the UCI for next year's Pro Tour:

Euskatel, Liberty Seguros, Iles Balears-Banesto, Saunier Duval (all Spain), Cofidis, Credit Agricole, Fdjeux.com (all France), Gerolsteiner, T-Mobile (both Germany), Fassa Bortolo, Liquigas (both Italy), Quick Step, Davitamon-Lotto (both Belgium), Phonak (Switzerland), Rabobank (Netherlands), Discovery Channel (United States), CSC (Denmark).

An 18th and final team will be named on October 8.