To be awarded a licence into professional cycling's elite tour - and the Tour de France - a start-up team has to fulfill two non-negotiable criteria. So far Australia's best attempt to join the pinnacle of cycling has failed to do either of these.

The sport's governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale, is steadfast on maintaining the tradition of the sport, and often don't look too kindly on young enterprises wishing to play with the big boys.

The only way to twist their arm into allowing a new license enter the scene is to guarantee a secure sponsor with a seemingly blank chequebook and to sign at least one of cycling's genuine superstars.

Pegasus Sports, the Australian bid under the guidance of chief executive Chris White, appears unlikely to succeed in passing either of these milestones, as its application for a professional licence was officially received by the UCI only hours within the deadline.

Just 18 teams are granted a ProTour licence. Since 2007, Astana, Garmin-Cervelo, Katusha, RadioShack, Sky, BMC and Leopard have all joined the tour only after being able to fulfill both of these prerequisites.

To be able to compete at the Tour de France and on the professional circuit, the UCI estimates a team needs a running budget of at least 15 million Euros per year. After renowned sport-loving businessman George Gillett Jr, a part-owner of Liverpool, withdrew his sponsorship, bicycle manufacturer Scott Sports are said to have put in US$4 million, well short of the recommended target.

In comparison, Astana, Katusha and Leopold all have financial backing from their national governments of Kazakhstan, Russia and Luxembourg respectively, while Garmin, RadioShack, Sky and BMC are all recognised brands worldwide and are run and owned by some of the world's richest people.

A team can have all the money in the world, but unless they are able to persuade a big name rider to join their squad, then the UCI still won't grant them a ProTour licence.

Astana, under the guidance of guidance of former US Postal manager Johan Bruyneel, were able to sign Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Kloden, Alexander Vinokourov and later Lance Armstrong - some of the biggest names in the history of the sport and all capable of winning the Tour de France in their own right.

Katusha signed Filippo Pozzato, Vladimir Karpets, Kim Kirchen, Mikhail Ignatiev, Sergei Ivanov and Robbie McEwen.

RadioShack was set up solely to serve the wishes of Lance Armstrong, effectively guaranteeing them a professional licence. But joining Armstrong from other teams were Chris Horner, Kloden, Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych, Gert Steegmans and Haimar Zubeldia.

Sky was launched and built around British cyclist Bradley Wiggins, as was the Luxembourg-based Leopard team for the Schleck brothers, Andy and Frank. The Schlecks have managed to sign some of the world's best cyclists, including the time-trial World Champion Fabian Cancellara, Stuart O'Grady, Jens Voigt, Fabian Wegmann and Linus Gerdemann. BMC entered the fray in 2008 and immediately had the next two World Champions in Alessandro Ballan and Cadel Evans. Enough said.

Meanwhile, and by comparison, Pegasus has signed only two half-decent riders, being an ageing Robbie McEwen and Canadian time-trial specialist Svein Tuft. McEwen is one of Australia's greatest ever cyclists, but he is a shadow of the rider, who won three Tour de France green sprinters' jerseys.

Joining McEwen and Tuft will be Luke Roberts, David Kemp, Darren Lapthorne, Markus Eichler, Christian Knees and Thomas Rohregger - all handy, but not exactly household names, except for Lapthorne and that is only for other emotional reasons.

As much as all Australian cycling and sporting fans would like to see an Australian-owned team operating at the highest level of professional cycling, it appears to be a forlorn dream in the short-term at least.

The team should be competitive at the second-tier level and all it takes to possibly progress to the next level is landing that big fish, as the sponsorship dollars would surely follow.

Fingers crossed.