Cycling's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, suffered a serious blow to its authority on Wednesday as the sport’s top teams voted to enter the first major stage race of the season, Paris-Nice.

UCI president Pat McQuaid had called on teams to boycott the race as part of his body's ongoing dispute with the race's parent company Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO) - also the organizers of the Tour de France.

ASO aims to run the race under the auspices of the French Cycling Federation
(FFC), with backing from the French government. However, that "far-reaching" move, according to a strongly-worded UCI statement released on Monday, means the race will no longer be a UCI-sanctioned event, a threat that may extend to this summer’s Tour de France.

Despite the UCI call, teams still opted to race in the event after a meeting on Wednesday.

"After having consulted all the teams, the International Association of Professional Cycling Teams (AIGCP) have decided unanimously to compete in the Paris-Nice race," announced Eric Boyer, who as well as being Cofidis team director is also president of AIGCP.

"The AIGCP came to this decision purely in the interests of the riders and the team sponsors,” he said, noting that “AIGCP has informed Pat McQuaid of its decision."

Boyer, whose Cofidis team opted to withdraw during last year's Tour de France after one of its riders failed a drugs test, said the AIGCP would meet with the UCI next week.

"In order to find a solution to this serious crisis that cycling is experiencing at the moment and to avoid a similar situation occurring again, we have organized a meeting with the UCI for the beginning of next week," said Boyer.

Races such as the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España are no longer classed on the ProTour, the elite cycling calendar set up by the UCI several years ago but which has been criticized by race organizers ever since.

Of the 27 races on the 2007 ProTour calendar, there are now only 16. All the races run by ASO, RCS and Unipublic now feature either on a “World” calendar or an “Historic” calendar, names which have yet to be confirmed.

Existing tensions between the UCI and race organizers, mainly over disagreements with the ProTour issues, have worsened this season.

Most recently, ASO controversially opted not to invite Astana - a ProTour team - to the 2008 Tour de France on the premise that the doping scandal which led to its exclusion in 2006 and its exit from the 2007 edition had done lasting damage to the race's image.

That decision enraged the UCI, which highlighted the fact that other teams were thrown off the race after a rider tested positive - however, ASO pointed out that unlike Astana, which had to be ordered to stop the race, Cofidis left on its own accord.

McQuaid has often said that Astana, which features Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and third-place finisher Levi Leipheimer, should be allowed to race in July.