Fly V Australia, which will hopefully morph into Australia's first ProTour team, will focus on racing in Europe next year, regardless of its status.

To this point, the Pro Continental squad has been based in North America, dominating the racing scene there and gaining enormous respect as both a professional and successful unit. The shift to Europe signifies their ambitions, leaving in no doubt their seriousness in pursuing the elusive UCI licence that will allow them to compete with the big boys in the biggest races. If not next year, then in 2012.

While it won't be the end of the world if a ProTour licence is not awarded for next season, it is of vital importance to the team that they continue to sign quality riders to their roster. Hence, the importance of Robbie McEwen's signing cannot be understated. Despite being in the twilight of his career, his name brings credibility to a squad that will more than likely be a fairly inexperienced one.

So far only two other signings have been announced - Australian Trent Lowe and Canadian Svein Tuft. While Lowe is a good, honest bike rider and Tuft a handy time triallist, neither are marque signings or the type of rider that you can build a team around. This only emphasises the importance of McEwen, an instantly recognisable name with a string of successes easily remembered.

From here on in, Pegasus Sports (the company behind the ProTour bid) could do no worse than take note of the example set by BMC Racing. BMC was a small team, hardly heard of, but with big ambitions. Wanting to mix it in the ProTour ranks, it went out and convinced current world champion Cadel Evans, former world champion Allesandro Ballan and Lance Armstrong's right-hand man, George Hincapie to join them.

While not gaining ProTour status, the immense talent on their list ensured that they received 'wildcard' invitations to all of the big races they wished to compete in, achieving a fair amount of success along the way. As a result they remain a good chance of picking up a ProTour licence for 2011.

Pegasus Sports will need to follow a similar path and in McEwen they have taken positive steps in that direction. But the journey is far from complete. While the Fly V Australia team has been a success and some of its riders will make the transition to the new incarnation, none of them are the names that will launch Pegasus into ProTour ranks.

At least two or three more big name cyclists need to be signed to the fledgling squad. Names that will make the UCI sit up and take notice, names that race organisers will want competing in their races. Only then will Pegasus Sports realise their dream.

Australia waits with bated breath.