What is going on with relegation and UCI points and why does everyone care now?

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Israel Premier-Tech

What's going on with relegation and UCI points?

Adam Becket

Relegation from the WorldTour is back in the news, after bubbling away for most of this year in the background, we have almost reached the point of no return for some teams, with opportunities to gain points dwindling.

After the Vuelta a España - for which points do not get awarded until all racing is done - there are just three WorldTour events left this year, all one-day races, 15 .Pro races, 21 .1 races, and the World Championships.

That means 7,783 UCI points are still on offer for the winners of all these races, and the individual stages contained therein, plus thousands more for podium finishes and more minor placings. However, these are unlikely to go to the select few teams who need them most, those that are struggling at the bottom of the UCI's table. 

At present, both Lotto Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech, two current WorldTour teams, face relegation, while Alpecin-Deceuninck and Arkéa Samsic would be promoted to cycling's top table. Lotto can take comfort from the fact that, as things stand, they would still gain access to the Grand Tours next year, but Israel would not, with TotalEnergies occupying this second spot.

There are currently only 619 points between Movistar, BikeExchange, EF Education-EasyPost and Cofidis in the four spots above relegation; Movistar are 288 points ahead of Lotto Soudal, who currently are in the red zone.

Suddenly, things are looking awfully tight at the bottom, and both racing and non-racing decisions are affecting the rankings.

For example, Simon Yates' withdrawal from the Vuelta (because of Covid) has deprived his BikeExchange team of potentially hundreds of crucial points that they would stand to gain from a high finish on general classification.

While the Australian team bounced back with a stage win on Wednesday, through Kaden Groves , the 100 points gained here will do little to quell fears of the drop.

With more and more riders dropping out of the Vuelta after catching the virus, in a year when illness has seemingly had more of an impact than usual, it is points that are being lost, not just results.

This was seemingly what Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) was getting at in a hastily deleted tweet sent on Wednesday morning: "How can we have a relegation system, risking the future of decade old teams, during these unprecedented times of sickness. Sport is not fair, granted. But this just doesn’t seem right, not now and not like this. I would like to see solidarity between all riders, of all teams."

Solidarity is a tricky concept in the peloton, with the official union, the CPA, famously unloved, and little binding riders together across teams, nationalities, ages, goals and more. This is what made Geoghegan Hart's intervention interesting; his lack of dog in the fight, as Ineos are hardly one of those threatened with relegation.

What those in the teams striving for promotion to the top table, like Alpecin and Arkéa, make of this call for solidarity is a different matter. The relegation system might threaten the future of "decade old teams" but to not have a system would threaten new investment in the sport.

The boss of ProTeam Uno-X, Vegar Kulset, tweeted: "Imagine a Premier League club that, at the end of the season and close to relegation, complains that due to injuries and covid, the relegation system is unfair. And the final argument - we are an old club and do not deserve this."

Away from sickness, Arkéa's push to the WorldTour has been threatened by Nairo Quintana's positive test for tramadol at the Tour de France , which has deprived the French team of 400 UCI points after he was disqualified from the race. His sixth place therefore no longer exists. He has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with the potential for court rulings affecting the final UCI points table.

There are squads who have reportedly asked their riders not to attend the World Championships in Australia in order to concentrate on gaining points at smaller races, while tactics to boost point totals - and possibly not risk everything by going for the win - are clear to see.

There are even reports that riders will leave the Vuelta early to target other races for UCI points, which seems to undermine the whole point of competition at the highest level; the system is leading to weird decisions.

As a sport, cycling often struggles to present an overarching narrative, especially to the casual viewer. Individual events mean a lot more than any kind of structure to the season - the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships are big events across the whole year - while any kind of structure is at best noticed at the end of the year, at worst ignored altogether.

To the casual viewer, as most are, any kind of thinking beyond a single race or a series of events like the cobbled Classics, is alien. Yet for many years there has been a unified attempt at some kind of system or league across the season, to link things up, to make Dwars door Vlaanderen connect with the Tour of Poland, or the UAE Tour with the GP de Quebec.

The current system for men’s cycling, devised by the UCI, the sport’s governing body, is the WorldTour, with the ProSeries sitting below it, the successors to the Super Prestige Pernod and UCI Road World Cup. There are 18 WorldTour teams, the ones you have heard of, and they get to automatically go to the WorldTour races, the ones you have heard of. Below that, there is the ProSeries, of 17 teams, which you have probably heard of, who go to races that you probably know, and sometimes, confusingly, to the races you definitely know. Below this again are Continental teams, who mostly go to the races you don’t really pay attention to.

Understand?

Since the inauguration of the WorldTour, 13 long seasons ago, there has been an end of season ranking, which is normally, rightfully, ignored; it is often either superfluous or odd (Tadej Pogačar and Deceuninck Quick-Step won last year).

Still, the ranking exists. 

This league table matters more than ever this year, because the 18 slots for teams who will form the WorldTour for the next three seasons are up for grabs. Some squads who are currently at the top table face relegation, while ProTeams below eye up their spots, and therefore automatic invites to the biggest races.

All races have UCI points and riders score points based on their finishing positions, this is how the league table is set, although it is only the top ten scorers in a team who actually contribute to the overall total. It is the points total across 2020, 2021 and 2022 that counts.

Points do not just go to winners, they go to top finishers, up to the top 25 in certain races.

If all of this is not confusing enough, different races have different points. You win 1,000 points for winning the Tour de France, for example - lucky Jumbo-Visma - and 125 points for winning the Volta Limburg Classic, as Arnaud de Lie did for Lotto Soudal.

There is one more layer of added complexity, which is that the two teams with the highest points total this year - and this year only - get invites to the Grand Tours for next year, and do not have to hope they get in through a wildcard.

All of this is why team decisions have appeared weird this year, as those squads in danger have become alert to the situation they have found themselves in and kicked into gear. Big name riders have been sent to smaller races to garner points, or multiple riders on one team have finished high up at an inconsequential event.

While the concept of relegation and promotion from the WorldTour makes sense, teams have been left scratching their heads at a system which sees more points awarded for victory in a 1.1 race - the Marcel Kint Classic for example - than a Grand Tour stage win.

Throw the chaos of real life into the mix, and a pandemic, plus the confusing points system, and it has been a messy year.

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Adam is Cycling Weekly ’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling on tarmac, he's happy. Before joining Cycling Weekly he spent two years writing for Procycling, where he interviewed riders and wrote about racing, speaking to people as varied as Demi Vollering to Philippe Gilbert. Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to cycling.

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world tour relegation standings

world tour relegation standings

2024 Women’s WorldTour Promotion/Relegation Standings

The 15 teams that will be included in the 2024 Women’s WorldTour will be decided on the combination of a team’s 2022 & 2023 season UCI points. The end of the 2023 season will see the first time that this process has been played out as the licence cycle for WWT teams changes. Previously, teams were given 4 year licences if they were one of the first to join the WWT, giving security. That was back in 2020 and saw 8 teams join the Women’s WorldTour. Team SD Worx joined them the following year and were secure in the WWT for 3 years. The reboot of the Tour de France Femmes and the guaranteed invite to that race by being in the WWT, saw the teams shoot up to 14 in number with 2 years guaranteed.

The end of the 2022 season saw the first points battle as for the first time, there were more teams applying for the WWT than there were available spots. Fenix-Deceuninck beat Ceratizit-WNT and AG Insurance-NXTG to the 15th and final Women’s WorldTour spot for this season. 

The top 15 teams that apply at the end of the 2023 will be granted WWT licences for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, pending the UCI’s satisfaction that they also pass a number of other administrative & financial criteria. 

Currently there are successful teams that have, up to this point, shown no interest in applying for Women’s WorldTour status. One of those is Parkhotel Valkenburg who are happy in their role as a team that develops riders just below the top of the sport. They will occupy some of the top-15 spots over the 2023 season but can be almost certainly discounted from the Women’s WorldTour promotion race. We can also probably rule out the likes of ATOM Deweloper, Canyon SRAM Generation (who are a development team anyway), Tashkent City Women and Cofidis.

There are some genuine maybes as well. The likes of Lifeplus-Wahoo and Team Coop-Hitec Products won’t rule out making an application but they also won’t be first the queue to put one in as well. Neither wants to sacrifice their team’s future stability just for the WWT status. St Michel-Mavic-Auber93 may also fall into this category.

All of the existing WWT teams, plus Ceratizit WNT, AG Insurance-Soudal Quick-Step, Zaaf Cycling and potentially Laboral Kutxa are all likely to submit applications to join the Women’s WorldTour if possible. 

A secondary point is that the top-2 non-WWT teams will also receive mandatory invites to Women’s WorldTour races. Some of the teams in the maybe category, may be happy with that status as it can see them guaranteed to take part in the biggest races for a season.

2024 Women’s WorldTour Promotion/Relegation Standings

Last updated: 26th september 2023.

WWT Standings 26th September 2023

The box on the right hand side shows which 15 teams are set to qualify for the 2024-2025 Women’s WorldTour cycle based on the standings at the last update. Teams like Lifeplus-Wahoo and Parkhotel Valkenburg aren’t set to apply for the Women’s WorldTour, so whilst they are close to Israel Premier Tech Roland, they don’t represent a solid threat.

The merger of Liv Racing Xstra and Jayco-AlUla for 2024 also frees up a spot for Israel Premier Tech Roland who sit 16th in the standings at the moment. A further spot has now opened up with EF Education-TIBCO-SVB set to fold at the end of 2023. That means that there are now effectively 15 teams applying for 15 spots, with the jeopardy of relegation now removed.

2024 Wildcards Standings

world tour relegation standings

With the 2024 Women’s WorldTour teams seemingly sorted, the wildcards battle is the major area to look at. The highest 2 scoring Continental teams in the 2023 season will receive the Wildcards. They enable the team to be auto-invited to all Women’s WorldTour races in 2024, including the Tour de France Femmes. That makes them very important for the best of the Continental teams to secure a strong race calendar the following season. 

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The New WorldTour Points System Explained

world tour relegation standings

Following complaints from numerous teams about the WorldTour’s promotion and relegation system, the UCI has published new regulations with significant changes. The rule amendment has been published less than a month before the start of the new 2023-2025 triennium, whose cumulative ranking will determine which 18 teams will be part of the WorldTour in 2026-2028.

In summary, there have been three important changes, which will be discussed in more detail below:

  • The UCI points scale gives much more importance to Grand Tours and Monuments, as well as to stages in WorldTour stage races.
  • The UCI World Ranking for teams, both annually and across the triennium, will take into account the 20 best riders of each team, instead of 10 as at present.
  • Teams relegated by the sporting criterion will have automatic invitations in 2023 for the entire UCI WorldTour, except for the Grand Tours. In practice, this allows Israel – Premier Tech to receive automatic invitations to all one week WorldTour stage races, even though they did not qualify for them under the rules in force during the 2020-22 triennium.

UCI Points Allocation

The UCI has revolutionised the scoring system for the next three years (2023-2025), with the objective of incentivising the best riders to participate in the most important races. To this end, they have multiplied by a factor of 1.6x the points allocated to the Monuments and the Road Race of the World Championships and Olympic Games. The points in the general classification of the Grand Tours and the ITT of the World Championships and Olympic Games have also been multiplied by a factor of 1.3x.

However, the most impactful change is the value of stages in Grand Tours and the rest of the WorldTour stage races. Whereas before only the top 5 in a Grand Tour stage and the top 3 in the rest of the WorldTour stages were awarded points, in 2023 the top 15 in a Grand Tour stage and the top 10 in the rest of the WorldTour stages will be awarded points. In addition, a much higher value will be given on places of honour in the stages. For example, in 2022 an individual stage in the Tour distributed a total of 240 UCI points, whereas in 2023 it will distribute 935 UCI points, a 290% increase.

In the following image, you can see the new scoring system, with the new Monuments category, differentiated from the rest of the classics. We recommend you to download it in high resolution from here .

world tour relegation standings

Based on the calendar contested in 2022, this change in the scoring system means that there are 28% more UCI points at stake (308,903 vs. 241,027). But as the scoring of the continental circuit races has virtually remained the same (except for a slight increase in points for the ProSeries stages), this smaller calendar will see its importance reduced. Whereas under the previous scoring system the continental calendar shared half of the available UCI points, in 2023 it will share 40%.

world tour relegation standings

As we can see in the graph, the most important races (Grand Tour, Monuments and Worlds) will now have a much higher weight (36% vs 23%). This was a demand from many WorldTeams and even fans, although it will hurt teams that do not have automatic access to those races, like Uno-X. The new scoring system will also benefit ProTeams that have wildcards for WorldTour races in 2023 (such as Lotto, Total and Israel) over those that do not (Uno-X and the rest), as they will be more likely to keep the invitations season after season with immediate access to the most profitable races.

Also the weight of the classics (except for the Monuments) is reduced in favour of stages in stage races. In 2022, all teams at risk of relegation added a large number of minor classics to their calendar, but from 2023 they will have to look for more places of honour in WorldTour stages. The forgotten riders of the previous points system, breakaway stage hunting specialists and consistent stage race sprinters, are suddenly much more valuable under the new scoring system. For example, Hugh Carthy targeted breakaway stages in the second-half of the Giro d’Italia 2022, placing fourth on the stages to Cogne and Lavarone, earning him a paltry 24 UCI points.

world tour relegation standings

Under the new system, Carthy would have scored 160 points across both stages, a 567% increase. In the bunch sprints, Alberto Dainese scored 108 points across the three weeks of Il Giro 2022, but in 2023 he would have scored 370 points for his victory and five top 10 placements.

world tour relegation standings

While most of the changes are logical, the UCI has left the door open to some schedule ‘optimisation’. For example, Continental Championships outside Europe still award 250 points to the winner of the road race (more than a stage of the Tour) and National Championships (some with a very low sporting level) still award 100 points to the winner of the road race.

20 Riders Count per Team

From 2023, the UCI World Team Ranking, used for the relegation battle ranking and to hand out automatic wildcards annually, will take into account the top 20 riders per team instead of the top 10. According to the UCI, this “will help to reduce the pressure currently imposed on only a limited number of riders, which can lead to a number of negative consequences (risks of injury, excessive number of race days, temptation to doping, etc.)”.

To better understand the impact of the new measure, the following graph shows how the 2020-2022 ranking would have changed if the top 20 riders had been taken into account. Lotto Soudal and Israel – Premier Tech would have been relegated anyway, although Israel would have been much closer to salvation.

world tour relegation standings

The teams most dependent on their leaders (Jumbo, Alpecin, Movistar or BikeExchange) would have added the least percentage of points. ProTeams with shorter squads or without 20 riders capable to score points, such as Uno-X, Bingoal or Q36.5, will also be disadvantaged in 2023. Teams such as Quickstep or UAE Team Emirates, with large race programs and a deep pool of riders capable of scoring points, should be advantaged by this change.

The Israel Rule

The latest and perhaps most unexpected change is the UCI’s decision to “gift” Israel with invitations to all one week WorldTour stage races in 2023. It is worth remembering that Israel Premier Tech finished third in the ranking that awarded the 2023 wildcards and had therefore only won the wildcards to the one day WorldTour races on sporting merit. The UCI has clarified that the measure is temporary only for 2023, “coming as it does after three years of significant upheaval due to the global pandemic.”

world tour relegation standings

This emergency measure by the UCI has surely calmed down Israel – Premier Tech owner Sylvan Adams after the millionaire threatened to sue the UCI for the implementation of the relegation system. Israel are also a favourite for the Giro and Tour discretionary organiser wildcards, so they will not feel the effects of the relegation as much, with the Vuelta being the only major race they will likely be absent from in 2023. The extra invitation for Israel takes a wildcard away from the organisers of one week WorldTour races and hurts again modest teams like Uno-X, Q36.5 or Kern Pharma.

The only constant about the UCI points and relegation system is that it is always changing, this time at very short notice. In imperfect systems there will always be winners and losers from structural changes such as these, with teams like UNO-X surely aggrieved by new regulations that make their path to WorldTour promotion more difficult. However if the changes function as intended, there may be some positives for the fans, with teams like Lotto-DSTNY now incentivised to send superstar Arnaud de Lie to more major stage races rather than entirely focussing on a local calendar.

18 comments

Always a must-read! 👏🏻 In your personal opinion will the “Sylvan Adams” rule actually help his team score more points? their squad seems weaker than it was last year so i don’t see them scoring many points in the 2.UWT races, even if they send their best riders, what would hurt their ability to score points at smaller races that occur at the same time.

Also it seems like a bad decision from the UCI to publish the rules change a week before 2023 and not much earlier when teams could’ve had times to perhaps sign other riders or tweak the training program, well unless the teams were told about these future changes in advance.

Good article indeed.

And announcement is too late indeed.

The fact they have starting right (not obligation) is obviously a plus for Israel. Also the increased points are obviously an advantage I think. They have more GC guys than Total and Lotto. Lotto also only has 26 riders under contract.

Short term only those two teams and Uno-X matter. If they do a lot more races than some of the WorlTour teams, they will promote again. But being in the top 2 of the ProTour teams is crucial for that promotion.

Lotto should now hire extra racers and also fully use the advantages of its development team (Total does not have a development team).

Overall I like the changes, and think they are all going in the right direction. I wonder if they have overshot the mark on some of them though.

The increase in points for stage wins is great. A stage win at the TdF worth more than a ProSeries win makes sense. I’m just not sure placings down to 15 needed points though. Maybe points just to the top 10 would have been enough.

Counting the top 20 riders seems an overshoot as well. I agree that the top 10 was too few. Was the “reasoning” to make sure domestiques didn’t feel pressure ? Maybe just the top 15 would be better.

Maybe next year, or in three years, we will see refinements and adjustments again, perhaps backing down a bit on these changes.

Agree that top 15 would have been better.

Top 20 is really bad for the protour teams with only 20 racers (although their chance to end up in the top 2 or promotion spots is low).

Also Lotto is kind of forced to hire 4 extra racers to score I think. There are still some options, but they are limited. They could also promote racers out of the development team whose points then probably count when they race with the development team in .1 and .pro races? It might remove their opportunity to do .2 races?

As for the top 15 spots that count in the Tour de France I like it for Tour de France as those positions still count for the Green Jersey. And for other stage races it is logical only the top 10 counts.

For the one day races, up the top 60 counts. I think that should be changed. For 1.1 races, you could count top 20, for 1.pro top 30, for 1.UWT top 40 and for monuments top 50.

Or even less points: top 10 for 1.1., top 15 for 1.pro, top 20 for worst UWT, top 25 for best UWT and top 30 for monuments. I am suprised they didnt change points in the one day races.

The reasoning is that under the old system we reached a point near the end of the year where riders outside the top 10 on good form had to domestique for riders in the top 10 because otherwise they wouldn’t score any points.

Indeed. That was bad. It had to be more than top 10 racers, but 20 seems too much.

  • Pingback: Quién sale ganando y quién no en el nuevo sistema de puntos de la UCI – Ciclismo en TV

Silly question, if you will: are all WT teams safe now until the next triennium in ‘26, or do we go again next year, for the final year of the past three? PS, I refresh this page most days for the next instalment, keep up the great work.

Everyone keeps their WT license for the next 3 years based on the promotion / relegation system. Of course some teams may fold or lose their license for financial or other reasons, but promotion / relegation is only on a 3 year cycle.

The wildcards for the Proteams like Lotto, Israel and TotalEnergies is determined annually though

Brilliant, thanks…and Merry Christmas

En principio me pareció que aumentar la puntuación en carreras WT era necesario y merecido, en cuanto eso me parece correcto, sin embargo el análisis conlleva al problema de la factibilidad de que los actuales equipos WT de desempeño medio bajo y Pro con invitación a las pruebas WT se mantengan ahí sin afanes y muy cómodos, y que equipos ProTour (especialmente los de licencias distintas a la española, francesa, italiana y belga) se vean tan damnificados en aspirar a ascender de categoría que tal vez varios prefieran migrar próximamente a continental. Creo que con esto se crea un veto.

Los cambios favorecen la estabilidad de los equipos WT y dificultan los cambios y los ascensos. De todos modos, está bien que se mantenga el sistema de ascensos y descensos después de tantas presiones. Si los equipos de segunda división hacen bien su trabajo seguirán teniendo sus opciones de ascender, aunque sea un poco más difícil.

Muchas gracias Raúl. Tremendo trabajo. Este post es de lectura obligatoria para cualquier persona que siga el ciclismo profesional.

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BREAKDOWN: Explaining the 2022 UCI Promotion/Relegation Standings

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Breakdown: Breaking down exactly what is going on with the UCI’s new (and extremely confusing) promotion/relegation system and where things stand for the 2023 season. Which teams goes up and which go down and ‘is it all bad news?’ Maybe not.

– This article is an excerpt from the Beyond the Peloton newsletter. Sign up here for full access. –

suisse22

With the 2022 pro cycling season winding down this week, the results of the UCI’s new promotion/relegation system are in. This, along with the somewhat odd and unfair rules of the system itself, has created plenty of chatter about who is being relegated from the WorldTour, and most importantly, what this actually means (spoiler: it’s complicated).

A bit of background on how we got here: Back in 2019, professional cycling’s governing body, the UCI, presumably tired of perennially bad teams squatting at the sport’s 18-team top level (the WorldTour), decided to implement a three-year-long promotion/relegation system that would tally every UCI point scored by professional teams between the 2020-2022 seasons. This tally would then allow them to designate the top 18 teams in this ranking as the WorldTour teams for the following three seasons (2023-2025) and demote the underperformers. In theory, this meant that the consistently poor performing teams would be relegated down to the second-division while overachieving teams would be elevated to the sport’s top flight.

vuelta22st10tt

While this could be a good system, in reality, the strange way UCI points are distributed (i.e. lower level regional races yield a high number of points while grand tours yield a small number of UCI points) and the lack of a viable second-division has caused an immense amount of (somewhat deserved) complaining, protests and potential legal challenges from the relegation-threatened teams.

lotto

Where Things Stand at the End of the 2022 Season

Even with a few races and UCI points still being up for grabs in 2022, we already have a very clear view of the implications of this first round of promotion/relegation since the gaps between the promoted and relegated teams are large enough to prevent any further shuffling in the standings.

As we can see in the graph below, the current WorldTour teams suffering relegation are Lotto-Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech while the teams who are currently second-division teams (aka ProTeams) being promoted are Alpecin-Deceuninck (formerly Alpecin-Fenix) and Arkéa-Samsic.

relegation22

What Exactly Does This Mean?

Some fans might look at the above graph, see that Lotto and Israel are relegated, and assume these consequences for both teams are an equal problem and that both teams will not be present at top-level WorldTour races in 2023. While a logical assumption, it couldn’t be further from the much more complicated truth.

To fully understand the consequences of relegation, we first need to look at the UCI points standings from just the 2022 season.

2022 UCI Rankings

ranking22

As we can see above, Jumbo-Visma, at least in terms of UCI points, was the most successful team of 2022, while Astana was by far the worst (I will break down these rankings in more depth in the coming weeks).

But, most relevant to the promotion/relegation discussion is Lotto-Soudal in 15th place, TotalEnergies in 17th place, and Israel-Premier Tech in 19th place.

This is important since due to the complex race selection rules in pro cycling, in addition to the 18 WorldTour teams and three wildcard team selections (another topic for another day) every major race is required to invite at least the top two performing second-divisions teams from the season prior (stage races invite the top two while the one-day races invite the top three).

The 2023 Wildcard Picture

WorldTour Stage Races (i.e. Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana) IN: Lotto-Soudal – 6759 pts TotalEnergies – 6022 pts

OUT: Israel-Premier Tech – 4806 pts Uno-X – 2772.63 pts

WorldTour One-Day Races (i.e. Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders) IN: Lotto-Soudal – 6759 pts TotalEnergies – 6022 pts Israel-Premier Tech – 4806 pts

OUT: Uno-X – 2772.63 pts

Tobias Halland Johannessen

What This Means

As we can see above, the consequences of this are that while Lotto-Soudal and TotalEnergies will technically be outside of the WorldTour and down in the second-division, they will still receive automatic invitations to every major race. Conversely, while Israel-Premier Tech will receive invitations to one-day races, they won’t be invited to stage races. This is significant since the single most important in cycling is the Tour de France, and if a team can’t get an invitation, they fail to offer a compelling case to potential sponsors and top riders.

In theory, Israel-Premier Tech is still eligible for wildcard invitations to grand tours, but these are distributed via old-boy networks and, as such, almost exclusively go to second-division teams based in the home country of the grand tour. This means that since the team is based outside of Europe and lacks any major French stars, like Julian Alaphilippe, they have an uphill (or expensive) battle to being invited to the Tour de France.

While most contracts in cycling give riders and sponsors an automatic out if a team fails to stay in the WorldTour, there is little, to no, incentive to actually trigger these clauses if a team still has an automatic path to the cash cow that is the Tour de France. But, on the flip side, a failure to gain an invitation to the Tour de France is usually fatal for a team since, without top sponsors and riders, an outfit has little to offer. Also,

The Hidden Upside for Lotto-Soudal

An interesting wrinkle here is that as the top second-division teams are that they have an advantage over the WorldTour teams since they receive invitations to these races, but have no obligation to attend, which means they can sit out of shoulder grand tours to conserve rider and financial resources.

lotto

Lotto will be able to pick and chose – and save money

While they do have to perform well enough every year to finish inside the top two second-division teams and don’t get the three-year security of the WorldTour teams, this task is incredibly manageable since they have the benefit of picking and choosing their events, which means they can opt-out of bigger races where they have little chance of scoring points and instead send strong teams to enough lower-level races to easily rack up enough UCI points to stay ahead of nearly all the other second-division outfits (this will, in turn, also make it easier for them to make the WorldTour cut in 2026 than the lower-level WorldTour teams).

The State of Play For the 2023 Season

So, in short, the WorldTour for the next three seasons will reflect the following 18 teams, with Lotto and TotalEnergies able to tag along to any events they wish for the 2023 season, and Israel-Premier Tech attending major one-day events.

Of course, this could all be disrupted if one of the 18 WorldTour teams loses a sponsor and is unable to fund their outfit, which would either see one of the second-division teams promoted to fill the slot or the automatic invitations slots increased (both would have the same effect of allowing all of Lotto, Total and Israel being invited to ever major event).

2023-2025 UCI WorldTour 1) Jumbo-Visma 2) QuickStep 3) Ineos 4) UAE 5) Bora-Hansgrohe 6) Bahrain 7) FDJ 8) Alpecin-Deceuninck 9) Trek 10) Intermarché-Wanty 11) AG2R 12) Movistar 13) Astana 14) Cofidis 15) DSM 16) EF 17) BikeExchange 18) Arkéa-Samsic

2023 Carte Blanche Automatic Invite Teams 19) Lotto-Soudal 20) TotalEnergies

2023 One-Day Only Automatic Invite Teams 21) Israel-Premier Tech

vuelta22

# Spencer Martin is the author of the cycling-analysis newsletter Beyond the Peloton that breaks down the nuances of each race and answers big picture questions surrounding team and rider performance. Sign up now to get full access to all the available content and race breakdowns. #

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Spencer Martin authors the cycling-analysis newsletter Beyond the Peloton that breaks down the nuances of each race and attempts to bring a logic-based approach to cycling coverage. He is also a partner in cycling business publication The Outer Line, and in the past, has written for cycling outlets such as Velonews and CyclingTips. He has raced at a high-level in the past and still enjoys participating in a wide variety of races as well as riding in the mountains surrounding his residence in Boulder, Colorado. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @spencersoward.

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Lazio vs. Udinese odds, picks, how to watch, live stream, time: Mar. 11, 2024 Italian Serie A score prediction

Brandt sutton has locked in his best bets for monday's udinese vs. lazio serie a match on paramount+.

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Lazio  will host Udinese in an Italian Serie A showdown on Monday on  Paramount+ . Lazio entered a Round of 16 Champions League matchup with Bayern Munich with a 1-0 lead on aggregate, but had their European season ended by a 3-0 loss last Tuesday. Now, they'll have to reckon with what has been a disappointing Serie A season. Lazio have lost three of four in league play and are ninth in the Serie A table, while Udinese is trying to stave off relegation in 17th. They're on the relegation cutoff and only ahead of Frosinone on goal differential with 11 matches remaining.  Stream the match live on Paramount+, which you can now try free for the first seven days when you sign up here , and catch full analysis on the  CBS Sports Golazo Network .

Kickoff from Stadio Olimpico in Rome is set for 3:45 p.m. ET. The latest Lazio vs. Udinese odds list Lazio as the -120 favorites (risk $120 to win $100) on the 90-minute money line, with Udinese as the +360 underdogs. A draw is priced at +240 and the over/under for total goals is 2.5. Monday's match will be  streamed live on Paramount+ with their must-have Premium plan, which you can now try free for the first week .

Paramount+  is the only place to  watch every minute of every  Serie A  match this season . A subscription also gives you access to other sports content including the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, NWSL, NFL on CBS, and countless movies and shows. You can get your first week free, so  sign up right here . 

How to watch Lazio vs. Udinese

  • Lazio vs. Udinese date: Monday, Mar. 11
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Italian Serie A picks for Lazio vs. Udinese

Before you tune in to Monday's match, you need to see the Italian Serie A picks from betting expert Brandt Sutton . Sutton, a former collegiate soccer player, has been SportsLine's top soccer editor for more than five years. He has followed soccer closely for much longer and factors in managerial tactics, projected lineups and past performances to make the most-informed decisions possible, keeping his finger on the pulse of the game all over the globe.

For Udinese vs. Lazio, Sutton is backing both teams to score for a -105 payout. These are two teams in poor form, as Lazio have lost four of their last five matches across all competitions (three of four in Serie A) and Udinese have only managed three wins (with a staggering 15 draws and nine losses) all season.

However, Lazio will be looking to recalibrate and focus on the Serie A season now that they've been eliminated from the Champions League and Udinese is battling to avoid relegation. Both teams have scored in eight of Udinese's last 13 games and both teams have also scored in four of Lazio's last six league matches.

"Udinese have scored in 15 of their last 19 league games and I think they'll find the back of the net in this one. Lazio to score is -500 at home, so give me BTTS at -105 odds," Sutton told SportsLine.  Stream the game here  and  check out full soccer coverage on CBS Sports Golazo Network .

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Lecce coach Roberto D’Aversa appears to head butt Verona striker Thomas Henry after Serie A game

FILE - Lecce's head coach Roberto D'Aversa reacts during the Serie A soccer match between Frosinone and Lecce at the Stadio Benito Stirpe stadium in Frosinone, Italy, on March 3, 2024. D’Aversa head butted Hellas Verona striker Thomas Henry following a heated matchup between two teams just above the relegation zone in Serie A on Sunday, March 10, 2024. (Fabrizio Corradetti/LaPresse via AP, File)

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Lecce coach Roberto D’Aversa appeared to head butt Hellas Verona striker Thomas Henry following a heated matchup between two teams just above the relegation zone in Serie A on Sunday.

Henry was arguing with Lecce defender Marin Pongracic after the final whistle when D’Aversa went over to intervene and instead ended up knocking Henry over with an apparent head butt directly in front of one of the match officials.

“Next Saturday we have another big match (against Salernitana) and I didn’t want my players to be banned,” D’Aversa said. “So I went out to try and separate them from the opponents and then the incident with Henry happened.

“I’ve already apologized to Verona’s management,” D’Aversa said. “As a coach and father of three kids, I want to apologize for what happened.”

Both D’Aversa and Henry were sent off.

While replays appeared to show that it was indeed a head butt, D’Aversa later said on Instagram that it wasn’t.

“I was wrong and I apologize,” D’Aversa said in his social media post. “I got carried away and lost lucidness, but not to the point of hitting another person. … Once again I apologize to Henry, to the Lecce, Verona and Italian fans, to the referees, to the two clubs, to my management, my staff and my team.”

Michael Folorunsho scored early in the first half for Verona, which won 1-0 to move up to 13th place, two points above the drop zone. Lecce dropped one point behind in 15th.

With Lecce having earned just one point in five matches, the incident could also lead to D’Aversa losing his job.

Lecce said in a statement on its website that it “firmly disapproves” of what its coach did since it “goes against the principles and values of sports.”

Henry, who is French, said on Instagram that receiving a red card “for reacting only verbally, to a head butt” left him “embittered.”

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Exclusive: 2023 WorldTour could include 20 teams to avoid relegation chaos, legal battles

A larger 200-rider peloton would keep ProTeam and wild card places intact for Grand Tours

FOIX FRANCE JULY 19 A general view of the peloton competing during the 109th Tour de France 2022 Stage 16 a 1785km stage from Carcassonne to Foix TDF2022 WorldTour on July 19 2022 in Foix France Photo by Michael SteeleGetty Images

Cyclingnews understands the UCI is considering a plan to increase the number of WorldTour teams in the 2023 peloton to end the WorldTour relegation chaos that has left teams fighting for ranking points and unsure about their future if they drop out of the WorldTour.

According to several sources, the UCI could significantly change the WorldTour rules and allow 20 teams to compete in the WorldTour races in the next three-year cycle from 2023-2025.

That would avoid any of the 20 teams that have applied from missing out, and so neutralise the ever intense battle for ranking points as teams race to avoid relegation rather than win races.

Increasing the maximum size of the peloton to 200 riders is apparently the key to the last-minute solution. The current limit is 176 riders – 22 teams of eight riders for the Grand Tours and 25 teams of seven for other WorldTour races.

A larger peloton of 25 teams for Grand Tours and up to 28 teams for other events would allow 20 WorldTour teams to compete in all the WorldTour races, give the two best ranked ProTeams of 2022 places in the 2023 WorldTour races, and allow race organisers to award three wild card places.

The only concern about a bigger peloton is rider safety and a possible increase in crashes. However it also increases employment opportunities for more riders and so the CPA rider association is unlikely to oppose the increase. Costs would increase for race organisers due to a need for extra hotels but that is a minor problem to resolve if the race organisers are willing to play their part in finding a compromise solution. 

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The UCI created the current rules that will see only 18 teams awarded WorldTour places in 2023, with the sporting criterion based on points scored during the last three seasons.

WorldTour status guarantees the teams a place in all the major races, including the Tour de France. Many WorldTour sponsorship and rider contracts insist on having a place at the Tour de France , meaning relegation from the WorldTour can lead to the loss of riders and title sponsors and so the collapse of a team.

In the past the regular demise of teams and sponsors has rarely seen and excess number of teams fighting for a place in the WorldTour but Alpecin-Deceuninck and Arkéa-Samsic have both applied for a WorldTour place for 2023-2025, as have the current 18 WorldTour teams. Two teams are set to miss out unless the UCI makes a last-minute rule change. 

Cyclingnews understands that the teams at risk from relegation have come together to try to convince the UCI to award 20 WorldTour places and increase the size of the peloton.

The teams fighting to avoid relegation include Cofidis, BikeExchange-Jayco , EF Education-EasyPost , Movistar, Lotto Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech. The latter two are currently ranked 19th and 20th and so are currently in the relegation zone, but the other teams are closely tied on points and all less than a 1,000 points away from the drop.

Like a game of snakes and ladders, success in a major race can lift a team away from the relegation but a crash or a COVID-19 case involving a team leader can see them miss out on a points haul and so slide into the relegation zone.

That has sparked a battle for every point in recent months with the teams massively changing their race tactics and race programmes to pursue points rather than pure success.

Lotto Soudal have become masters at chasing points and placing as many riders as possible in points scoring positions in the one-day races they target, while Israel-Premier Tech , EF Education-EasyPost and Movistar have floundered and slipped down the ranking. 

That has arguably been detrimental to the sport and meant that several teams have also pressured riders not to travel to the UCI Road World Championships in Australia so they are fresh and on form for the final month of racing and points chasing. The imbalance between the points awarded in different races, particularly one-day races and stages in stage races has also skewed the rankings. 

Only a rule change from the UCI to allow 20 teams in the 2023 WorldTour can put an end to the battle for points that will last until the final stage of the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia on October 18.

One source told Cyclingnews that the UCI are supportive of the teams and trying to find a solution but admitted that it is "a complicated and delicate matter." 

Another source suggested that if the UCI fails to act, then the group of teams could begin legal action to try to force the UCI to expand the 2023 WorldTour to 20 teams. Strangely, it seems the AIGCP teams association that defends the interest of all the teams in the sport has refused to support the teams fighting to avoid relegation. 

The teams are convinced that the UCI rules and limit of 18 teams should be reviewed and changed due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the racing and skewed points scoring system. 

"In cycling, it's not promotion/relegation, it's promotion/death," EF Education-EasyPost team manager Jonathan Vaughters recently told Cyclingnews .

"It's nuts to judge a team purely on the points it can score," a directeur sportif, who did not want to be identified, told Cyclingnews . "Some teams can ride better race programmes because they're from Belgium or France, while non-WorldTour races can choose who they invite and squeeze team's sponsors for funding in exchange for a place. That is happening right now.

"What about a team's history? Or if they also run a successful women's team and development team? Cycling teams have to be judged on more than just the points they score. That's not what cycling is about."

In August UCI President David Lappartient defended the limit of 18 teams and suggested a relegation battle is good for the sport.

Cyclingnews contacted the UCI about the proposal to expand the 2023 WorldTour to 20 teams and the peloton limit to 200. They later published a statement insisting no decision has been made to end the WorldTour relegation battle , but did not deny that talks had been held.

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UCI World Tour Promotion and Relegation Weekly

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The points from the Vuelta a España are banked and Movistar have plenty to cheer about. For Israel-PremierTech things are doomed as they’re now further adrift from 18th place and security than they have been all season. Team owner Sylvan Adams is threatening to sue if the rules are rewritten.

world tour relegation standings

What’s Changed Since Last Week?

  • No change with Alpecin-Deceuninck and Arkéa-Samsic up for promotion, Lotto-Soudal and Israel-PremierTech facing relegation
  • Automatic invites to the grand tours next year would go to Lotto-Soudal and Total Energies
  • It’s been a big update with Quick-Step banking 1,898 points from the Vuelta a España and more. Yes first on GC in the Vuelta is 850 points but you don’t win a grand tour in isolation, there are the stage wins, placings and points for wearing the leader’s jersey along the way: Evenepoel collected 1,428.5 from the Vuelta.
  • Movistar got 1198 points thanks to Mas finishing second in the Vuelta and his placings too, 844 in total; but also Ivan Garcia Cortina’s fifth place in Québec
  • BikeExchange-Jayco were right to worry about Simon Yate’s exit from the Vuelta but get 720 points in part thanks to Michael Matthews in Québec and Dylan Groenewegen in Fourmies.
  • The three lowest scorers were Uno-X scored with zero, B&B 35 points and Total Energies 135 points but they’re not in the promotion/relegation contest to start with. Israel are, and they were fourth last with 138 points, chased by Cofidis on 244 and Lotto-Soudal with 255

world tour relegation standings

The chart above shows the results of this all, look at the right with Movistar’s dark blue line bounding from 18th place to 14th. It’s good for them but it’s not guaranteed safety for them yet as there’s less than 500 points between them and Cofidis in 18th place, things remain close. But there’s now 700 points between Cofidis and Lotto-Soudal in 19th place, safety and relegation and with six weeks’ left of the season it’s going to be hard to close this. For Israel-PremierTech things look irredeemable as they’re 1,405 points adrift of 18th place, this gap is now wider than it has been all season.

Last week saw a story that the UCI could expand the World Tour to 20 teams , only for the UCI itself to issue a press release closing this down… although if we’re picky, not categorically ruling it out either. The expansion to 20 teams is something Israel team boss Sylvan Adams wants, it’s his main demand of the UCI in a joint interview with cyclingnews and Velonews , although this got somewhat drowned out by his bold calls to sue the UCI and even challenge Tour de France organisers ASO by creating a rival race. He’s threatening to sue the UCI and invoke force majeure, only typically this involves parties agreeing a force majeure clause in a contract and seemingly the World Tour rules have no such provision: you can’t just say “force majeure” out loud. Even if you tried, then men’s pro cycling, to the credit of many, did deliver on almost all the big races of 2020 so it’d be an argument to test in court but a hard one. As for establishing a rival race, well it’s an audacious idea and he probably doesn’t really mean it. But the irony is that as things stand Adams’ team will surely want a wildcard invitation from ASO next year.

Going to 20 teams in the World Tour could be a compromise but it’s not cost-free. First there’s rewriting the rules ex post which undermines the authority of a governing body. But there’s an impact on the other teams, there’s a paradox with teams wanting to be in the World Tour because of its restrictive nature and enforced scarcity, but if they face relegation then they want it to be a little less scarce. Other teams in the World Tour may not cheer this.

For all the possible criticisms of the structure of the sport, from the allocation of points to the World Tour calendar, the three year system and capping the World Tour at 18 teams, they’re the same for each team. The one thing that Adams has direct control over is his team and recruitment decisions.

Animated bar chart race

Background info If you’re new to the story of promotion and relegation this year and want it explained then click here .

To see how many points are available in each race or category, click here .

Comments on this entry are closed.

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“The three lowest scorers were Uno-X scored with zero, B&B 35 points and Total Energies 135 points but they’re not in the promotion/relegation contest to start with.”

That’s not really accurate. Total is too far behind to promote, but Total is participating in the points-battle. If they don’t score enought, Israel could bypass them in the one-year-ranking and get the automatic invites to the grand tours…

The seasons-ranking of most important teams: – Cofidis 6550 – Arkea 6421 – Lotto 6200 – Movistar 5724 – BikeExchange 5290.5 – TotalEnergies 5035 – Israel 4369 – EducationFirst 4045

Scenario’s that would get Israel the automatic invites to the grand tours: – Lotto bypasses EducationFirst and avoids relegation (702 points difference) – TotalEnergies doesn’t score much anymore and Israel bypasses them (666 points difference)

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When the dire situation of and the bleak forecast for Israel – Premier Tech became apparent and obvious, I commented that the best possible outcome that Israel can hope for is that Lotto Soudal climbs above EF and the latter drops to 19th. That would at least give Israel automatic invites for one year – which would not only be helpful in keeping or getting sponsors but also in winning enough points in 2023 so that the team actually has a fighting chance of getting promoted after three years. But now I have to give up: Israel – Premier Tech is twice doomed or doomed in both ways.

And not only that: now Adams has gone and won the prize for being the most obnoxious team owner of the year (and possibly of the past 15 years, although he has Tinkoff to compete with there).

I would really have hated to be the GM of Israel. It is quite obvious that he and his DSs haven’t had a free hand to spend the wage budget as they would have liked. (It is a credit to them that they haven’t let slip any complaints between the lines in interviews or criticized the ownership by means of leaking rumours or inside gossip.)

For some reason I’ve quite liked the team. It’s a rich man’s toy alright, but that kind of thing doesn’t matter to me. I must put my trust in that Adams can accept what is coming and continue to bankroll the team: if the team finds itself in the same position three years on, then he can do what he pleases and consider it an experience for a life time.

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How have they been blocked by the wage budget? I suspect you mean Froome and his hefty payday without much to show for it, but the requisite Canadian and Israeli signings surely haven’t been that much of an anchor, especially financially. On the Canadian side at least, Woods isn’t that risky a signing, and Houle has been a key domestique and has recently found his wings.

Surely Astana is more hampered in terms of keeping roster spaces dedicated to Kazaks (Lutsenko aside)?

I can easily accept Froome as…what do you call it…a billboard acquisition? A famous name that attracts the attention of media everywhere , gains meetings and informal get togethers with sponsors, business friends and partners, so we can skip him I have no inside information, but it is my impression that on the next level (in terms of dollars or euros or Swiss francs) of riders there are quite a few who wouldn’t have been the first choices or who aren’t in the team just because no one better was available or willing to sign in their place. Michael Woods has been a bit of disappointment in this crucial year, but he is not one of the names I had in mind. The lack of talented soung riders has been quite noticeable since the team’s first season as a WorldTeam and I cannot imagine that the management would have chosen not to sign a few more whom they saw as promising. But, of course, I’m merely thinking aloud as a GM sitting on a sofa, watching the races and with perfect hindsight believing that he knows what should have been done…

2 weeks after his crash it was obvious to me Froome would never win any tour again. His body damage knocked off at least 2-3% of his abilities. He became like Degenkolb and Sagan after their injuries, not the same riders. I would have made my team known by hiring current top riders and winning something!

The point chase has made the season much more interesting. The World Tour should have promotion and relegation each year – makes it more interesting. Otherwise the points mean nothing, rien, nada – why on earth should we care who wins each race if the ‘league’ of teams is irrelevant? Of course relegation should come with parachute payments etc which I imagine there is no ££ for as the UCI have failed to create any sort of business model around their sport, letting ASO / RCS / Flanders Classics run away with all the profits from the industry. Shame.

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The points system has given one day races an added interest, like some background general classification battle. As you say, nobody really cared about the points before, one of the curiosities of pro cycling is that it’s a sport where rankings don’t matter because each race has its subtle characteristics and prestige. But there had to be some way to rate the teams, better this than the Licence Commission meeting in November to decide who they fancied for the World Tour.

There’s a sort of parachute in that a relegated team can qualify for the grand tour for the following season but only if they get enough points, it’s not automatic.

As for sharing profits, we’re almost back to revenue sharing, the zombie that never dies. Even if you use wild assumptions where ASO, RCS etc somehow donate half their money to billionaires and petrostate princes, there’s just not much to go round, see http://inrng.com/2019/01/revenue-sharing-revisited

Some money going to the owners seems normal, but ASO has famously “donated” a lot of its TdF profits to organizing the Paris-Dakar rally (and maybe some of the other sports events in their portfolio), which has been making massive losses for a very long time, so a “poor” sport like road cycling is effectively sponsoring a car race. Somehow that seems… wrong?

And as revenue-sharing goes, it probably better goes to supporting less famous cycling races, or races in categories that aren’t as profitable (women, juniors, etc.), which are all important for the road cycling ecosystem, and not to the men’s professional teams that already have a lot of money.

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“The one thing that Adams has direct control over is his team and recruitment decisions.”

Quite so. The team has always looked unbalanced with well over half the roster thirty or over, and many well so – despite that including one of my favourite riders, Sep Vanmarcke. Even if the UCI did cede to Adams’ pressure and find a way to maintain their WT place, the 2023 line up hardly looks better with many of the old-timers still in contract while strengthening will be difficult. Who would leave a sure WT contract for an unclear IPT future?

On a broader point, if one accepts the UCI WT/PCT strategy, surely 18 WT teams is ample.

I what would happen to the roster if Israel relegates without starting rights in the grand tours.

There are 19 racers with a contract for next season: https://www.procyclingstats.com/team/israel-premier-tech-2023/overview/

I dont know which racers have a contract clause so that they can leave in case of relegation.

But many of the older racers are probably paid above market value. I expect most racers to remain on the roster until the end of their contract or even career.

Some racers for which I could see interest with other teams close to their current salary are quite old: Nizzolo, Hermans, Teuns, Vanmarcke and Michael Woods.

However, I understood they will get automatic invites to the one-day-races, and I doubt they would get the same role in the one-day-races with another team. So why leave? Maybe Nizzolo who wants to add stage victories in the grand tours? Teuns could get a good contract with a Belgian team, but just signed for Israel.

The one racer that pops out for me is Corbin Strong. Probably not a very high salary but doing very well lately. But I doubt a young racer like that negociated a relegation clause.

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“many of the older racers are probably paid above market value”. That’s a bit of an under-statement when they have the highest paid rider in the world getting €5.5 million and not exactly performing (again an under-statement). Compare that with what Wanty have done with a fraction of the budget of IPT.

Froome and Fuglsang are obviously very much overpaid. I think the same applies to Woods.

I was referring to racers such as Sep Vanmarcke, Ben Hermans, Nizzolo, … for whom I never heard a salary announcement but could also have a good deal…

Intermarché has brought a budget increase to the Wanty-Gobert team, and I think their sponsors further increased the budget during the season (i.e. to increase Girmay’s salary), so they probably are no longer the “tiny budget team” they used to be.

I don’t know exactly how they compare to IPT’s budget now, but “a fraction” is probably no longer the right word?

Adams isn’t sounding very good in all of this. You understand his frustration, he is spending big money to help the sport and not receiving a lot in turn (I don’t think he is profiting from his team). With that being said, he put together a bad team. Hope he doesn’t leave the sport.

That was another interesting thing from the interview, his reprising of Jonathan Vaughters saying that relegation means the death of a team. You see that for a team like EF which is a business and needs to be in the top flight, but less for Israel which is really a passion project for Adams rather than one run for commercial marketing metrics, would he really stop the team if relegated? Perhaps he would but if he’s patient there’s the chance to race on and rebuild although for any relegated team, that starts now as if you want to get into the World Tour with points from 2023-2025, you need to be signing scorers now so they start delivering from next season onwards.

I think signing big scorers for next season wont be easy.

With Total, B&B and Uno-X (and Bingoal?) also going for promotion and/or automatic invites in 2024, they don’t have an easy task ahead of them…

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Not sure about Total Energies, but I think Adams can easily gather budger bigger than those other three teams added together, if he starts using some reasonable team building principles, he should outscore them over the next season with no problems.

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I think TotalEnergies will outscore Israel. Even in this relegation year and as a world-tour-team, Israel didn’t outscore Total …

B&B now has Carrefour as extra sponsor and got a big budget-increase: https://cyclinguptodate.com/cycling/bb-hotels-ktm-to-have-big-budget-increase-and-carrefour-as-title-sponsor-for-2023

Uno-X announced they want to become a worldtour team. So far they only added Kristoff though. I think they might come short, as they don’t always get starting rights.

As for Bingoal, I don’t think they are going for World Tour, but they might be in the mix for one of the automatic invite spots if they have a good season.

Both Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise and Bingoal-Pauwels Sauces-Wallonie Bruxelles are partially government-sponsored, with goals to promote sports to the general population and provide a place for young Belgian riders to start their pro cycling career. Promotion to WT would defeat at least the latter goal.

It’s hard to feel much sympathy here for Adams & ISN…the rules have existed for 3 years – it’s not like the UCI sprang them on everybody a few weeks ago. So why hasn’t he been complaining for the last 2-3 years? Seems pretty obvious he’s only complaining because it’s now inevitable that his team get relegated – we wouldn’t hear a whisper from him if his team were safe.

But not only that, he now wants 20 WT teams, effectively closing the door to any wildcard invites in GTs, and also closing the door on any new teams entering the WT. So the very route that his team have taken over the last few years – injecting money, expanding its roster, securing race invites and proving (to some extent) its worthiness at the top level – is one that he now wants closed to anybody else. A little hypocritical, no?

Let’s be generous, he can see his team’s in trouble here and very likely facing relegation now and no team owner will shrug and be nonchalant about this, what can he say (knowing that while there might not be a force majeure clause, some riders probably have World Tour or quits clauses in their contracts)?

But for all the complaints about the system and business models, I would also like to hear him talk about his team and the sporting decisions they had control over, like recruitment.

As mentioned above:

1/ Even though Israel probably wont be World Tour anymore, they can hope to get the automatic grand tour invites if they bypass Total or Lotto saves itself and a team with less season points (EducationFirst) still relegates.

2/ I dont see many racers leaving, as they have high contracts and are best in one day races. Nizzolo is the main racer that I can see leave.

Even without automatic invites they should still be able to get a lot of wildcard invites with riders like Nizzolo (Italian stage races), Vanmarcke (Flemish classics, including Roubaix), Teuns (many classics & some stage races), Woods, Houle, Clarke, etc. And that’s only counting those that are already known to have a contract for next season. For the TdF he would have to find a popular French rider, or someone else who can challenge for a podium spot.

Going back to the last week’s discussion (comments have closed under that post).

RV: “10-12 WT teams would mean eliminating at least a third of the best jobs in cycling” Larry T: “leave more places for teams of regional interest to the race organizers”

Yes, it would eliminate those jobs. But the current model, with biggest races nearly full from mandatory teams (18+2 is 20 out of 22 spots in a Grand Tour), we do not lack top level jobs. We also don’t lack bottom level jobs (and non-jobs), there are nearly 200 UCI Continental Men teams registered. On the other hand, the middle level has serious problems and needs help. And every industry needs medium level jobs to exist.

At the moment, we have 18 teams registered as World Tour and 17 as Pro Team. This is already a hint of an unhealthy state, no pyramid should have a top level which is bigger than something below it. In fact, it is even worse, something like 19-14 (Alpecin is operating as a de facto WT for a few years and Gazprom is suspended for most of the season). When we look at those 15 teams, only 3 of them are registered outside of 4 countries with a lot of local WT races. Uno-X (I’m quite sure their plan is going for a WT spot in 2026 by getting points in next promotion cycle), Human Powered Health (seem to be on decline, only raced Tour de Suisse at WT level this year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them drop down to Continental next year), Novo Nordisk (nowhere near Pro competitive level, they have the licence for marketing reasons and don’t even race a lot of .Pro events, let alone any WT).

All of this happens because the UCI insists on having 18 de iure WT licences plus 2 de facto ones, on the other hand their peloton size changes (which happened for valid rider security reasons) mean that a Grand Tour has just 22 spots. And the organizer is much more likely to give those scarce wildcards to local teams. Other races are a bit better, with 4-5 spots available, but still it is very hard to get a reasonable calendar as a Pro Team without a lot of local WT level races.

Serious reduction of number of WT licences awarded would allow for a breathing room for Pro Teams and allow for sustainable long-term existence of teams at this level in multiple countries. There are 7 countries in Europe and 6 more on other continents which have at least 4 Continental teams but nothing at Pro Team level. This happens because extra expenses of stepping up a level don’t give you guarantee of doing at least some big races. If we went down to 12 World Tour teams, we have 10 “free” spots in GTs and 13 in other races. Then they could be split between the UCI and the organizer at 7-3 and 8-5 proportion (the organizer getting a bit more, but not a lot more than now, the “local interest” teams are already doing reasonably well, the UCI getting more or less the replacement of no longer existing WT teams). Now, the most important thing (even more important than reducing the number of WT teams) is giving out those spots in a way that helps all Pro Teams, not just the very top (who anyway need this help the least). At the moment top 2 Pro Teams get something which is a 1 year WT licence in disguise, one more gets a decent consolation prize, but 4th place gets completely nothing.

So, suppose we have just 12 WT teams but UCI also “owns” 7 wildcards for Grand Tours and 8 for every other WT race. Now, at the end of a season, all Pro Teams can get sorted according to UCI Team Ranking and get to pick the wildcards for next year. Top 14 pick a Grand Tour each, then top 7 can pick one more. For other races, all Pro Teams could draft the wildcards, starting with top of the ranking, by for example top half choosing 3 races in each pick, bottom half choosing 2, then going round until there are no wildcards left. This way every single Pro Team can plan their season knowing that they are going to race at least some World Tour races, making it much more likely that such teams will exist in more countries, and that some of those teams could plan to stay on that level long term on a basis of something else than relying on domestic calendar.

Sounds reasonable. However, every major change should also be reviewed from the point of view of the potential losers as well. There will be two teams losing their WT licenses now and you already get whining and treats of lawsuits. Imagine what would happen if you take away the WT licenses of 6 more teams? Many teams with large wage bills will be demoted, which would lead to a lot of riders getting their wages slashed.

The current model looks like a ugly hybrid of the American franchise closed model and the European tiered leagues model with the added bonus of everything including team names plastered over with commercial logos (unless it’s sportswashing) Idiocracy-style.

Still, in the long term, more lower tier teams having access to more higher tier races should be the goal and your suggestion goes in that direction.

I like the idea of distributing the choices for wildcard race spots among the Pro Teams… it would give some predictability, which is important for sponsors, while also making the order of selection dependent on each team’s UCI ranking (so there’s a sporting/reward element there too). I guess one of the hurdles in decreasing the number of WT teams is how this would affect sponsors: with 12 WT teams, 6 teams would miss out on guaranteed entry to the TdF and other big-ticket events, which would likely discourage sponsors’ interest. But this at least would be balanced by those 6 ex-WT teams having some say in the big races that they can do (even if they can’t all do the TdF etc).

An interesting idea in any case

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Do we really want the UCI owning anything like wildcard licences? It sounds a bit vulnerable to corruption to me.

UCI already “owns” 20 entries into each WT stage race and 21 entries into each one day WT race. And they distribute them in a way that kills all but the few strongest Pro Teams. So the model I would like to see actually takes one entry from them and gives it back to the race organizer to invite whoever they want, while changing the way the remaining ones are given out, from 20 full packages + 1 consolation prize, to 12 full packages and all the rest spread among all Pro Teams, with better ones getting slightly more races plus first choice of which they want to do.

It’s a pretty solid idea. Otherwise, there’s no chance for new team to really compete in the next three year cycle. Less teams in the WT is better in my view.

It was my understanding that it was the race organiser that invites teams, hence the recent Vuelta having all Spanish invites?

Yes, formally all non-WT teams are invited by the race organizer. Currently it is 4 spots (18 WT, 22 teams max due to UCI peloton size limit rules). But two of those “invites” are, by UCI rules, mandatory (to Alpecin and Arkea this year), so the organizer has real freedom only with two wildcards (Giro had three, as Arkea decided they don’t want to go). And as two is very little, there is no chance any foreign teams get them.

It’s more complicated Wayne. Normally there are 22 teams and 18 are reserved for the World Tour. Then two invites go to the best two non-World Tour teams from last season, so Alpecin and Arkéa but these are invites, both rode the Vuelta but Arkéa said no thanks to the Giro. Which normally leaves two places but exceptionally they invited three.

To add to this, some World Tour races can also have a national team taking part, think the UniSA team in the TDU.

Also there’s small print to say a grand tour has to have one team from the host country, not a problem this year for the Vuelta with Movistar, nor the Tour with several French WT teams, but in Italy there’s no WT team so one of the two wildcard invites must go to a local team.

Plus the amount of invites vary according to the number of World Tour teams, if it is shrunk to 16 (the plan one day, see “scarcity” above), then it’s automatic invites to the best three + three wildcards at the organiser’s choice.

@Jacek – I agree broadly with a reduction in WorldTeam numbers and more merit-based ProTeam invites.

My solution would be: 15 WT + 4 merit-based PT + 3 wildcard for tours 15 WT + 5 merit-based PT + 5 wildcards for one day races.

Rolling renewal of licences (e.g. finish 2023 season in position 1-6 and your 2023-25 licence gets replaced with a 2024-26 licence) would be necessary to improve stability, with shorter licence periods for mid-pack and lower ranked WorldTeams providing for more fluid movement between the WorldTeam and ProTeam divisions. At a minimum, every year’s #1 ProTeam must have the ability to be promoted to WorldTeam for the following year (if they want it)

Merit-based PT positions would be selected using a weighted draft for the top 12 ProTeams to select their WT races to attend. #1 team would have first pick in each round and would get to select two races in each of the first three rounds of the draft, #2 team would get to select two races in the first two rounds, #3 team would get to select two races in only the first round.

Team ranking points should also be the team’s best result on each stage/race, regardless of which rider scores it. This should encourage the racing to become more tactically aggressive as domestiques would be incentivised to go all in for their team leader, not to save something in case there’s a sprint for a minor placing carrying a handful of points.

I personally wouldn’t reduce the number of World Tour Teams.

I understand that for new teams, it’s hard to really get good exposure though. Without starting rights in certain races, you don’t get the good sponsors or races, which you need to get those invites.

I like the idea of giving the Protour teams the right to start in the bigger races, but don’t know if I would fully open it. It’s understandable that France wants to give it’s invite to Carrefour-B&B. Same thing goes for the Giro and the Vuelta. And in Belgium Topsport Vlaanderen and Bingoal are guaranteed a lot of starts.

Maybe you could add some kind of lottery for all UCI-races? All teams that want to enter the Tour de France can enter that lottery, where you submit a pre-selection of 10 racers and teams with more points for those racers get higher odds to start? Although again, organisers are not going to like it…

Or increase the number of WT teams and do away with wild cards altogether?

The flipside is you can’t remove weak teams. Imagine if Arkéa-Samsic move up to the World Tour, don’t hire any new riders, Quintana fades, a disappointed Samsic pulls out so they can’t afford to keep Barguil and the experience proves a total flop (a bit of a downer, but it’s for illustration). There ought to be a mechanism to swap them out for a better team. Having a review every three years can work here.

Plus you don’t allow WT races to invite locals, lots of teams exist because they get wildcards, eg Sportvlaanderen live for the Ronde, B&B for the Tour, Androni for the Giro, Euskadi for the Vuelta and Tour of Basque Country and so on, the idea is to have an open system where teams can do varying levels of races, so Jumbo-Visma can do a .1 race and BH-Burgos can do a World Tour rather than closed circuits.

The only teams who are seriously complaining are those who are likely to be left with nothing for next season (mostly IPT and EF). Those lower level WT teams, who would surely drop if there are only 12 WT spots, would likely become good Pro Teams, with decent chances for a TdF spots and nearly sure of at least Giro or Vuelta. While completely free to skip expensive trips to Australia/Canada/China, or even some European races which do not fit their plans and which they only attend because they are forced to (for example, do you remember the absolutely pathetic squad AG2R sent to Giro this year, where their biggest achievement was getting a 5th place from breakaway on one of the last stages?) Currently everyone holds on to the WT spot for dear life because getting into any big race without it is super hard, if this changes, teams will be happier to stay at the lower level.

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The main thing is the moment they lose the guarantee of the start in the biggest races they lose the biggest bargaining chip in sponsorship. Some teams might stay near the same level if they have a big name rider to bring it in the sponsor but most would lose big sponsorship. Which calls into question if they survive at all. Its not just entry into the TDF which is of importance is guaranteed entry. I think the tdu largely underwrites the travel expenses and i would be surprised if the China races are different.

Beyond IPT’s difficulties the UCI seem to have formalised Quintana’s elimination from the TdF GC results with consequent loss of points and other riders moving up a rung. Does this mean that the UCI feel on solid ground for their action and against Quintana’s appeal? Quintana also hasn’t been selected by his team since the TdF since though he is listed by PCA for the Worlds in Wollongong. Will he ride Lombardy and the Italian late-season hilly classics and help make Arkéa-Samsic’s WT place secure?

I’d suggest there’s no UCI view on this. They’re following procedure on Quintana, they’ve sanctioned him. He can now appeal and he is. But the Licence Commission is far removed from the UCI, remember it’s deliberately composed of outsiders, it is chaired by a former Swiss high court judge, the others work outside the UCI too. Quintana can ride, there’s no suspension but he dropped out of the Vuelta to prepare his appeal.

The UCI can set up an arms length committee to assess licences, but at the end of the day the UCI Management Committee are fully responsible for the terms of reference under which the Licence Commission operates.

Last time around, they dealt with this by hastily drafting regulations giving the Professional Cycling Council the ability to grant additional licences once the Licence Commission was done with their work.

The Licence Commission might have a little more work on their hands this time around when it comes to the other criteria though. Frits van Evers, the CEO of Jumbo who is directly responsible for the company’s sporting sponsorships (Jumbo-Visma, Max Verstappen, Team Nederlands Racing in which he drives a LMP2 sports-racing car in a Pro-Am category) is one of at least nine people arrested when the Dutch police rounded up a money laundering operation.

It appears the Frits van Evers arrest was not related to the Jumbo company though, so it probably won’t be any of the Licence Commission’s business?

I dont think Arkea will relegate, so they wouldnt need the points from Quintana nor appeal a relegation due to it.

However, two teams gained points due to Quintana: Powless (EF) gained 20 Jorgensen (Movistar) gained 10 Uran (EF) gained 10 Bettiol (EF) gained 5

I dont think Movistar will still relegate.

But if Lotto, Cofidis or BikeExchange relegate and EF has maximum 34 points more than them. I think they could go to court.

If not, i think the Quintana thing will be a non-issue in the relegation-discussions.

I’m not sure why people enjoy watching failed riders win stages. Carapaz winning three stages in the Vuelta is not interesting. He is a GC contender and that is what he should fight for. Of course if he is let up the road, and that is what it was, he was let go because nobody who is any good cared, he should blow the competition. Again, stage wins in a grand tour are mostly won because the good guys, the guys we want to watch, didn’t care to contest for the stage win. I want to watch the best of the best going head to head, the rest is just noise, especially a points battle which has nothing to do with the best of the best winning.

100% agree. It’s the old Yates playbook. It’s a terrible sideshow in the GT’s recently. As much as I like Carapaz it was terrible seeing him win three stages like that. I’d rather see a flat stage bunch sprint.

Every flar bunch sprint you see means one less mountain stage where the GC could make attacks. Maybe things were indeed better back in the day when Cipollini or some other sprint king won nine stages and the GC riders would ride “maximum attack” on all mountain stages? But if we consider Carapaz in this year’s Vuelta: what should he have done after the first week when his performance had been mysteriously poor and he had lost too much time to fight for a podium place? To limit himself to riding as a super domestique to his team’s number two guy?

That would be my questions as well. If you clearly don’t have the form to challenge for a podium spot what do you do? Just go home and wait for the next race? Let’s not forget that Carapaz also took home the mountain jersey or shouldn’t GC guys bother with that either?

If I was Rodriguez, there were quite a few stages where I would have liked Carapaz’s help. I may have then finished 4th / 5th rather than 7th.

Instead, we all watch Carapaz overly celebrate beating Marco Brenner and him berate Higuita repeatedly in to pulling – when he didn’t have the legs – to then just drop him anyway. Both rather class-less from an Olympic Champ, Giro winner who also holds a full set of podiums in GTs.

I was left with the impression that Carapaz didn’t fancy a fight for red and chased personal glory through stages.

Turns out Carapaz had some personal issues to take care of before the race and so his training and approach wasn’t where he’d planned. I’d say he had a good Vuelta all things considered.

I agree. I personally like it when riders who’s GC doesn’t turn out the way they wanted go for stages. But I can see it must be frustrating to watch if you were looking forward to seeing a big GC battle.

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Sir Jim was probably pleased with the outcome, all things considered.

Listen, I’m clearly exaggerating. Doesn’t mean I have to enjoy watch a GT winner defeat much lesser racers on certain stages. And yes, he probably should have been helping Rodriguez who could have easily been 5th and missed 6th by 1 sec.

Is a lower GC placing preferable to stage victories? I honestly don’t know the answer to that but, I think if I were a racer I’d prefer 3 stages to 4-10th on GC. But as I say don’t know which is more valuable to the team.

I don’t know which race you all watched, but in the one I watched I saw a Carapaz coming back from a breakaway group to drag Rodriguez for the next 20km to the finish.…

Measuring by sponsor’s exposure, three stages are probably about as good as a podium and much better than finishing 5th. Who cares who finished 5th or 6th, anyway?

From a points perspective Rodriguez lost 200 points by slipping from 4th place’s 460 points to 7th place’s 260 points. Carapaz got 100 points per stage win & another 100 points for winning the KoM jeresy. So Carapaz gained twice as many points as Rodriguez lost. While Ineos aren’t a team having to ride for points this season, if they were one of the teams in danger then their strategy of allowing Carapaz to ride for himself rather than Rodriguez on several stages would have definitely paid off in gaining them more points. It’s also very debatable if Rodriguez could have held onto 4th after his crash, even if Carapaz had towed him up every remaining mountain. Maybe they also didn’t want to put all the pressure on Rodriguez in his first grand tour by having everyone riding for him. I imagine he would have been disappointed enough at slipping from 4th to 7th but it would have been even worse for him if the team hadn’t got anything else out of the race.

Not sure I’d agree – as others point out, what else was Carapaz to do? Stage 14 was great viewing, not only for Roglic attacking but watching Carapaz just holding him (and Lopez) off.

It can be worse than that: a rider can underperform on purpose, arrive to the finish in the grupetto and lose minutes just to gain the freedom to go in a breakaway and win a stage 🙂 But (1) it’s still not a piece of cake for a GC rider to win in a breakaway, (2) spectators and TV viewers get two races for the price on, and (3) if the GC riders raced all hilly, mid-mountain and mountain stages to win, the racing and the entire GT we’d see would probably be quite different – and probably duller and less eventful – or we’d have GTs with twice as many flat sprint stages.

But admittedly, it can be difficult to explain why, say, Dan Martin’s or Jay Vine’s stage victories can be exciting or, indeed, worth as much as a stage victory taken in a small group with GC riders 🙂

The points battle between the teams is not something that I, for instance, pay any thought to during the stage or the one-day race. It is just something extra to consider later when I look at the results. Or when I look at the riders a team in danger has sent to a forthcoming race…

Like you said its not a piece of cake. Most GC riders that drop back and try to win stages never win a stage. More often than not they really struggle even when they get in a break. Although it is not as competitive as winning a 3 week GC battle its still hard to get in a break and win a stage on those stages where its expected that the break will go the distance. Adidtionally many GC riders are good at concistent riding with just a few minutes of effort at the end. They are not suited to massive efforts sometimes for 60 or 90 minutes at the beginning to get into a break. Having to do hard turns for hours and then finish it off with high effort for a few minutes to an hour at the end.

Vine’s crash took the interest out of the KOM competition and Wright’s wrong deflated the GC battle.

“Wright’s wrong”? Are you one of the TJV delusional “let’s blame an innocent guy for Roglic’s dumb sprint moves” team or Crashin’ Primoz yourself? I really had a lot of sympathy for Primoz as a rider, but he lost almost all of it after he came up with this alternative reality nonsense.

Roglic made the mistake of not seeing Wright; Wright can’t make the same claim. He was sprinting for fourth in a bunch of five!

That’s a curious line of argument. Roglic didn’t see Wright and thought he could cut into the group; Wright, whether he saw him or not, held his line as he is expected to do in a sprint; and it was Wright’s fault?! As for “fourth in a bunch of five”, Wright’s results in other sprints suggest he was in with a real chance of winning until Roglic crashed into him.

Save the Roglič vs Wright for another place please, neither has any bearing on the promotion/relegation.

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Well, he ended up with 4th after Roglic crashed into him.

If you want to watch the best going head to head with the best, don’t watch Vuelta. The only 2022 GC race worthy of your frankly entitled demands is the Granon stage.

Why people enjoy watching failed riders redeem themselves? Because of the redemption that winning a stage offers. Carapaz still had to beat other riders who wanted those stages – considerable feat indeed, if you take into account what winning a GT stage requires. Perhaps we expect such performances of GT winners, but they still have to perform, to ride the stage and win. Peak Pinot was probably stronger than peak Carapaz and he often flatters to deceive in such circumstances – where Carapaz succeeded.

The huge majority of riders don’t ride a GT to actually win it – let’s say only 3-5 riders ride a GT to win it. Does that mean the other 180 riders’s race is a priori a failure?

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Personally for me one of the things I like most about the Grand Tours is the multiple narratives across the 3 weeks. They are to me potentially like a good novel – so yes I’m interested in the end game but I’m also interested in the plot and how it develops, take delight in some of the ‘minor; characters and stories that help to illuminate the whole. The approach taken by riders like Thomas de Gendt for example always provides me with an interesting sub plot away from whatever is happening on GC.

My 21 year daughter who has absolutely no interest in cycling has this year sat and watched a number of stages in both the TdF and the Vuelta. We have discussed tactics, why teams or individuals are doing certain things, the scramble at the start of a stage etc. She was genuinely interested. It’s so much more than just about a GC battle I think which is why I enjoy it so much.

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Does Movistar’s success mean they can let Valverde go to worlds now? Or has the Spanish team been set?

Garcia Cortina is going from Movistar, a late call-up.

Too bad for Valverde he still cant go. He couldve also scored some points.

Movistar is not safe yet, but they seem close, also with this week’s results so far.

Could a solution for the 20 team thing be to promote as the current system is organised but give all relegated teams a one year entry. This might result in extra teams with the one year entry if you get 2 former WT teams and a pro team or 2 that got more yearly points. This is sort of like a golden parachute so the team does not cease to exist straight away but they have a year to qualify the one year entry. This would probably need approval from ASO because they have the real power.

You could but the same teams have had 2022 to qualify, it’s not been a surprise… and they’d get to the end of 2023 and demand the same again.

We’ll see though, pro cycling has had several episodes where the rules get rewritten, as recent as the rule change that helped the Dimension Data team in 2019 and we had 19 teams in the World Tour for 2020.

That was actually offered last time around when it looked like Team Dimension Data (a team with very strong connections to the sport’s political structures) was facing relegation under the regulations in place at the time.

A new regulation was added giving the UCI (not the Licence Commission) the ability to award extra full WT licence/s to existing WT team/s facing relegation but still placing 19th or 20th, and for a WT team finishing 21st or below to have one year of a mandatory wildcard entry.

Dimension Data ended up making use of the first option, getting a WT licence for the full three years.

ASO and RCS were kept on side by way of the extra WT spot coming at the expense of the second ProTeam mandatory invite (thus preserving 2 wildcards at the grand tours) and a guarantee that any requests made by the organisers to have a 23rd team would be granted.

Funny how one forgets the details, even the important ones! That was when the UCI had decided to decrease the number of WorldTeams by one, 2017 and onwards, and Doug Ryder made it publicly known he would go the Professional Cycling Council and if that failed, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, wasn’t it. The UCI thought about it and decided to increase the number by one back to 18. Problem solved.

In 2016 Team Dimension Data had won five stages in the Tour (Mark Cavendish, Steve Cummings) and this year Israel – Premier Tech won two stages (Simon Clarke, Hugo Houle) and Sylvan Adams is prepared to sue the UCI if needs must. History never quite repeats itself, but if it does…

I was referring to the shenanigans in 2019, when Dimension Data were placed well outside the top 18 on points and had the “19th team” rule invented for them. The 2020-21 seasons consequently had 19 WorldTeams.

But yes, there was also their successful intimidation of the UCI into abandoning the 17 team plan three years earlier when they turned out to be the team in 18th place.

Ryder should have kept it as the orginal Qhubeka-MTN team instead of chasing a move up to the WT division. Qhubeka was a popular team with race organisers (only the second Pro Continental team ever to race all three grand tours and all five monuments), the media and major companies queuing up for even a tiny square of space of their kit.

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See pcs article on are teams riding more races to avoid relegation.

yeah – please see the comments sharing that data 3 weeks ago.

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It is about money and control. the team owners (IPT or EF or ___) are desirous of a USA type sports system where the rich can purchase a team and be in NFL or MLB forever with no risk of relegation just manufactured product and profit. ManU were trying to set this up with their European league (they are Americans after all). They want NO RISK for their investment. They control things. Banks get bailed out 2008 GFC and average people foot the bill. It’s the same thing… This Canadian (or Vaughters) demands NO RISK, he requires the system (UCI, CAS, whoever) to come in and fix his mistakes. They get all the upside and non of the risk. Maybe beyond the scope of ‘cycling’ but the principles are the same… cycling, football, European fuel contracts, etc. They tell you the little guy it is all above board but ‘they’ never lose.

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I don’t think anyone who has ever formed a professional cycling team or bought out an existing team thinks of the money they’re spending as an “investment” in the financial sense which your comment assumes. You speak in terms of profit and write “They get all the upside and non[e] of the risk.” I’d love to know which cycling teams you’re aware of have been generating a financial profit for the owners? I’m going to guess you’re fairly new to the world of cycling as a professional sport. It’s basically a money pit sport with the only rational reasons for making the “investment” come down to vanity, obsession, and advertising.

This is a whole topic on its own. Teams have no equity in the competition/races, unlike most other sports. There are no gate receipts (except in cyclocross and track cycling). Teams have no equity in the media / broadcast properties. Yet here we are discussing how they get to keep their position in the sport’s top tier. It is not rational, so yeah it’s vanity.

Good though, isn’t it?

UCI have an embarrassment of riches now with more WT teams then licenses (will the proposed “Paris Cycling Club” also wave wads of cash at the UCI?). A topic for another day is why the big bucks are flowing into pro-cycling now – cheap TV coverage? “greenwashing”? “sportswashing”? Or just a glut of cheap money used for self-promotion? Will Israel PT join ranks with another team to keep WT racing if the UCI relegates them? Astana have apparently had money problems, and what happens if Bahrain fall foul finally of the French police? Lots of unanswered questions to ponder on during the Winter. months.

KevinK – did you miss or don’t understand the word DESIROUS in JE’s first sentence?

Yes, I did, and I made it plain that the evidence is clear that no one gets into cycling team ownership f0r financial profit, because there is NO profit to be had for team owners, regardless of how the system is structured. Inring clearly explained, in the post he linked to from a few years ago discussing potential profit sharing within cycling, that even if the few profitable races (TdF primarily) shared fully half of their net profits with the WT teams, it wouldn’t begin to cover their budgets. It would amount to about $2 million per WT team. Professional cycling teams operate at a huge financial loss, period, and they’d still operate at a loss if the sport shared what meager profits there are. It’s inescapable that there is no built-in revenue stream for road cycling as there is for other sports.. The only rational justification for sponsorship is that there is advertising value (and of course there are what could be considered irrational justifications, but that just gets us further away from the idea that these rich, lazy team owners are in it for the fat, easy cash).

Look, JE’s post was a bunch of naive, angry nonsense. Much as most people don’t like to admit it, most professional team owners (in any sport) are actually smart and capable people who inevitably have had significant success in some area. They may be arrogant, annoying, narcissistic, bullying, whatever, but they are not dopes, especially when it comes to money. Anyone can see from a million miles away that, from an owner’s perspective, NO system in cycling is going guarantee “manufactured product and profit,” and certainly not profit without risk, which is what JE claimed owners want.

I’m pretty sure some long-time successful teams that are not owned by their title sponsor (where the “profit” would be in indirect benefits for that company) operate at a profit. Nothing big, but enough that they can build a “reserve”, and can probably pay out some money to the owners if they want to (although in many cases this will be hidden as consultancy or other service invoices or similar to avoid taxes, I suppose).

Nothing comparable to what is possible with some other sports, of course.

@JanC – I’m sure you’re correct and I’m willing to bet that Quickstep is one of those rare teams with a positive or at least on paper a near positive balance sheet. Of course, JE wasn’t talking about those teams, he was talking about Vaughters (who isn’t even an owner!) and Sylvan Adams. Apparently it’s only north Americans who are evil this way.

Lefevere is only a minority (20%, I think) shareholder of Decolef Lux, the main company behind the Quick Step team; the majority is owned by Zdeněk Bakala (a Czech-American billionaire), who also invested in other cycling/sports-related ventures (e.g. the Bakali Academy, which is also used by Quick Step, and where Patrick is on the board also).

The company has made profits and losses over the years, but it’s unclear to me in how far it manages all the team finances (Lefevere & the riders are actually subcontractors & not employees, and other related companies might be providing services, manage portrait right, etc.).

Post Vuelta it looks like Arkea is safe, but the Quintana drama still has them on the edge. Losing his Tour points and what would probably have been a good result at the Vuelta is a major curveball. I would have expected a top 10 finish and possibly a stage win had he raced.

Attached is some data that one may find interesting.

2022 Calendar – Location of One-day races (1.1, 1.Pro, 1.WT)

Belgium 36 France 28 Italy 19 (12 upcoming) Spain 12 (0 upcoming) Germany, Netherlands 4 Canada 2 Switzerland, US, Japan – 1 Australia, Norway, Denmark, UK – 0

Separately – The results of 2021 were reviewed (across all the 1.1 and 1.Pro races)

French Teams won 72% of the French races and 63% of the top three were from French Teams Belgium Teams won 72% of the Belgium races and 61% of the top three were from Belgium teams Italy – Italian riders were about 50% of the top 10 (teams were insignificant) Spain – Spanish teams got 20% of the top 3, and 30% of the top 10 were Spanish riders. This data was sourced from PCS.

It says that countries where one-day races (and cycling in general) are very popular, where most of the money for organizing such races comes from, and where more teams invest in riders that are good at such races, also get the best results in them, right? 🤔

The solution for teams/countries that think they are disadvantaged is simple: 1. Organize more 1-day races in those other countries, preferably ones that are attractive enough for the riders/teams. Strade Bianche and the Laurentian Classics showed that it is possible to create new successful races if you want to put in the work (and invest the money). 2. Maybe have your team(s) invest more in riders for 1-day races.

Maybe some 1.2 races could be upgraded?

What is the reason some organisers only have 1.2?

They dont meet requirements for 1.1 or dont want to be a 1.1?

Almost certainly it comes down to money in most cases? Higher (minimum) prize money, TV requirements, hotel costs (might not be required or cheaper when there are more local continental/club teams), etc.

And many of the countries without a lot of higher ranked races also don’t have a lot of 1.2 races, I think? It’s probably some combination of lack of money, a lack of organizational knowledge & lack of public interest? Also combined with companies/governments that don’t understand the possible RoI from sponsoring cycling races yet?

Maybe someone can do a survey with those organizers some time?

1.2 and 2.2 races have their own place in the sport, as the next step beyond national calendars into lower level international racing. The purpose is quite different to that of a more professionalised 1.1/2.1 race, and therefore it’s probably best to assume that a 1.2/2.2 race is run at that level because the organiser wants it to be run at that level.

If an organiser has legitimate backing and a serious plan to move their race up towards ProSeries or WorldTour status, they should really be skipping 1.2/2.2 and starting off at 1.1/2.1 on the first edition.

Lotto Soudal really didn’t clean up this weekend for one reason or another in the sprint races. Kind of think that’s it for them, that they can’t move ahead of BEX at this point.

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