Sprinter Elia Viviani’s Cofidis have been granted WorldTour status from next season, the team and the world cycling body UCI announced on Tuesday.

They become the 18th outfit to take part in the top tier of UCI organised races after nine campaigns on the second-division Professional Continental circuit.

“Cofidis deserve to be in the WorldTour. To be on the WorldTour signifies always needing to be on the highest level from the start to the end of the season,” Viviani said in a Cofidis statement.

The 30-year-old Italian has stage victories across all three Grand Tours.

Viviani joined the French outfit for 2020 after eight years in the WorldTour with teams including Sky and Quick-Step.

2020 COFIDIS ROSTER

Elia Viviani

Nathan Haas

Atilla Viviani

Piet Allegaert

Simone Consonni

Nicolas Edet

Eddy Fine

Natnael Berhane

Fernando Barcelo

Christophe Laporte

Cyril Lemoine

Mathias le Turnier

Guillaume Martin

Luis Angel Maté

Marco Mathis

Emmanuel Morin

Anthony Pérez

Pierre-luc Périchon

Stéphane Rossetto

Fabio Sabatini

Damien Touzé

Kenneth Vanbilsen

Julien Vermote

Dimitri Clayes

Jesper Hansen

Jose Herrada

Jesus Herrada

Victor Lafay

AFP/RBA