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STOCKHOLM, Jan 12 (CP) - The ASO, organization of Paris-Nice, announced the twenty participating teams, including Agritubel instead of the ProTour team Unibet.com. According to the ProTour regulations, all ProTour teams must start in the ProTour races, which means also in Paris-Nice. However the organisers did not send an invitation to the Swedish team and invited the French ProContinental team instead. Unibet.com team manager Hilaire Van der Schueren reacted: "Not allowed to start? We are a ProTour team! That's all I say about it." Manager Koen Terryn added: "It's the first time I'm hearing this. We received an obliged program from the UCI, and there is mentioned we have to ride Paris-Nice. "It seems that Agritubel, a non-ProTour team, may start. We should talk with the UCI but this can be very bad for cycling," he concluded. The French ProTour race will start on the 11th of March. The participating teams: Ag2r Prevoyance (Fra) Astana (Sui) Bouygues Telecom (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears (Esp) Crédit Agricole (Fra) Cofidis (Fra) Discovery Channel (USA) Team CSC (Den) Euskaltel-Euskadi (Esp) Française des Jeux (Fra) Gerolsteiner (Ger) Lampre-Fondital (Ita) Liquigas (Ita) Predictor-Lotto (Bel) Quick Step-Innergetic (Bel) Rabobank (Ned) Saunier Duval-Prodir (Esp) Team Milram (Ita) Team T-Mobile (Ger) Agritubel (Fra)

© Jeroen Michiels