Katusha's successful appeal to be reintegrated into cycling's WorldTour means 23 teams instead of the usual 22 will line up for the Paris-Nice and Criterium du Dauphine races, organizers ASO announced on Tuesday.

"We aren't going to leave a team by the side of the road," Christian Prudhomme, director of the two stage events as well as the Tour de France, told AFP.

   

Katusha won its appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after being excluded from the circuit in December, leaving them at the mercy of the organisers of the major Tours as to whether they are invited to compete or not. The CAS initially upheld the ruling in January but overturned that decision on appeal on Friday. The controversial team, who count 2012 World Tour champion Joaquim Rodriguez of Spain and Russia's Denis Menchov in their ranks, is run by Russia's Viacheslav Ekimov, a former team-mate of Lance Armstrong.

   

In November the Association of Race Organisers warned it would only consider handing out invitations to teams which had signed up to the anti-doping charter - the Movement for Credible Cycling. Katusha had been refused a wildcard entry to this year's Giro d'Italia as they had not signed up for the Movement, but they have since done so as a probationary member.

While 23 teams compete for the March 3-10 Paris-Nice and June 2-9 Criterium du Duaphine, the cast list for the Tour de France remains at 22, Prudhomme said - the 19 teams with World Tour licences plus three invitees, instead of the traditional four. He added that the number of riders per team would remain at nine for the Tour de France, rather than the eight-strong teams for the other races.