There’s significangt news on both the promotion and relegation fronts this week. We have a promotion story to chew on today as Alpecin-Fenix have finally confirmed they want to be promoted to the World Tour for 2023-2025. Meanwhile on the relegation side Israel-PremierTech continue their slump, falling to 20th place.
What’s Changed Since Last Week?
- No change in the promotion and relegation situation, Alpecin-Fenix and Arkéa-Samsic stand to move up, Israel-PremierTech and Lotto-Soudal face the drop…
- …but there is a change in the standings as Lotto-Soudal overtake Israel for the first time
- Automatic invites to the grand tours for 2023 would go to Lotto-Soudal and Total Energies
- It was a quiet week for UCI points with Arkéa-Samsic topping the table with 447 points largely thanks to a sweep in the Tro Bro Leon, ahead of B&B Hotels on 240 points, Total Energies on 208, Lotto-Soudal on 163
Alpecin-Fenix made two announcement during yesterday’s rest day at the Giro: a name change to Alpecin-Deceuninck for the summer, and more significantly they want promotion to the World Tour. This finally settles the mystery about their promotion and it is the right thing to do. It’s not automatic as they’ll have to satisfy the UCI’s Licence Commission but they’re a well-run squad sitting high on the rankings so it’s at the formality/rubber stamp end of the scale.
It means two current WorldTeams face certain relegation. Currently these are Lotto-Soudal and Israel-PremierTech. There might still be value in being 18th rather than 19th in case another existing World Tour team doesn’t secure money for next year but they really need to find a way to move up.
Thomas de Gendt got a giant stage win for him and his team. But it’s not much use for Lotto-Soudal’s points quest. Teams are ranked on the basis of their 10 best riders and he’s not been among them yet. The team’s current 10th best scorer is Florian Vermeersch and his 95 points but once the Giro’s points are added up, De Gendt’s 100 points for the stage win will see him in, displacing Vermeersch and therefore a net gain of just five points right now. He’s got his eye on more stages and they sorely need a win from Ewan.
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.
Mentioned it on the Giro thread. Bike Exchange have been going backward (in relative terms) for a while. Lotto, whilst hardly doing well have significantly reduced the gap. It was around 1600 points on 01.02 now less than 800. Caleb Ewan is likely to pick up a number of points even if he doesnt win sprints. Perhaps Thomas De Ghendt will manage more breaks. Whereas for BEX it is difficult to see where points might come from. I believe that points for the Giro only get added in post race so I guess that there will be a good few for Caleb Ewan and at least 5 for Thomas De Ghendt!
We’ll see for Ewan, he could be among the sprinters leaving the Giro soon.
Bike Exchange have put a lot of their eggs in the Yates-Giro-GC basket and one crash has caused problems.
I was thinking exactly the same about Yates at the Giro. There was some speculation that he would climb off and concentrate on the Tour, where winning looks impossible but maybe he could finish in the top five. I see he’s still in the race, presumably hunting stages. I wonder whether the team’s need for points has forced them to “make the calculation”.
If it wasn’t for the knee he seemed in great condition given the TT win so some stage wins are good if he can recover, points or not. No rush for the Tour, he might prefer to come back for the Vuelta instead or even the Tour of Britain and something else.
I’d put my faith in Magnus Cort. But I must grant that even if he makes the best imaginable comeback or a quick and sustained return to form, it may not be enough.
But although I’m a big fan of riders whom everyone and their nephew is quick to classify as part their prime or as has-beens that are a complete waste of money, I’ve become pessimistic about Israel – Premier Tech’s chances.
On the other hand, I’m still not one of those who forecast the owner(s) saying goodbye after one season at the second tier if not sooner.
Exactly, I think Israel, of all teams, might see a silver lining in being a pro-conti team.
This is as good a point as any to remind everyone that teams formerly known as Professional Continental are now ProTeams 🙂
But what would you say are the pros of Israel – Premier Tech (or whatever it will be called next year, *if* there is a change of co-sponsor) being a ProTeam instead of a WorldTeam?
Unlike the absent and missed by many, me included, Larry T I don’t see a top ProTeam saving any significant amount of money by not having to participate in every WT race and as things sttand, Israel will not get the automatic wild cards to the GTs – which is where the owners want their team to be seen.)
If there is a silver lining, it would be that their U23 team actually has a fair few talented riders who can make the jump to the main team. There is also the fact that Froome’s contract very likely has an automatic release clause in case of relegation, so his salary would be off the books.
Israel – Premier Tech has quite recently picked up two riders from their Cycling Academy, i.e. the U23 team: 22-year old Italian Mauro Frigo and the 24-year old Canadian Derek Gee. The former signed a two-year deal (2023-2024) and the latter a three-year deal – which gives us a reason sto trust that the owners and backers aren’t planning to quit if the team gets relegated and doesn’t immediately bounce back and get promoted for the 2024 season.
I’m not sure about the Froome thing. He might wish to use the release clause (if there indeed is one) to find himself a new team (either at WT level or with an automatic invitation), but are there any takers now that the promise of a return to anywhere near his past form is gone and the lustre of a multiple Tour winner has greatly diminished (now that we have new, younger and hugely succesful GT winners and future stars)?
“Teams are ranked on the basis of their 10 best riders …”
Why? That does not make sense to me. So domestiques don’t mix up sprints in order to be high on the stage ranks and score points?
Exactly, so that a team can focus on a few leaders which means a domestique’s value is in the job they do rather than results/points.
Thanks!
But it’s a rather blunt instrument so far as achieving that aim goes.
Better would be to award the team the points corresponding to the highest position achieved by any of their riders on each stage/race result, regardless of the rider’s position in the pecking order over the course of the year.
If the day’s course and the team lineup means the #12 rider is a better pick than the #8 rider, this switch would incentivise the team to have #8 work for #12 to achieve the best result for the team without worrying about their own points.
Agreed
Where can we check the ranking of “10 best riders of each team” , is there any website or so which makes verifying quite easy? thanks in advance
The UCI website at https://www.uci.org/ then go to disciplines > road > rankings > team rankings and click on the team you want
Would be nice to analyse this for the main relegation teams in an article (BikeExchange, Israel, Lotto, Movistar, Education, Cofidis, DSM and Astana seems the one still in play for me).
The rest either has too many points or too many 1.1 races remaining where they can grind points. Intermarche, Arkea, Lotto Soudal and Cofidis have or will get invites for most 1.1, those other teams not.
Lotto should gain plenty of ground over the next month if PCS participations are correct. They´re marked down for 12! one day races while EF for example is doing none with same amount of stage races for both.
Something I’ve been meaning to ask for a few weeks reading the updates, and apologies if this has already been asked, but why are the automatic GT places given to Lotto and Total, who are 19th and 21st respectively? Why are they not given to Lotto and Israel who are 19th and 20th respectively?
I can’t find the post that explained it, but from memory the Grand Tour invites for 2023 are based on 2022 points only. Whereas the three year World Tour licences are based on three years’ results. Which makes sense.
That’s right, a 3 year system for promotion/relegation to determine the licence for the next three seasons. A one year system for next year’s invites.
Yep – pretty sure you’re right there Andrew. Don’t want to think of the possibility of Grand Tours without Thomas de Gendt!
Thanks!
Off topic, but sure hope Girmay can continue. Not because black, african, but because absolute beast. And having Pozzo grinding out a sprint for you.
Oh, and those other things too. I can’t remember a cycling win this big.
Cool to see! Class on many fronts.
If a rider moves teams do their points move with them? I’m sure that used to be the case. I’m just getting back into watching cycling after a break and trying to figure out how this works now!
It used to be that way, and points were a currency for recruitment. But not now, points scored for one team stay with that team.
Thanks. I think that sounds a better system, stops teams just buying their way out of trouble
One exception: racers without a professional contract, like Van Rensburg that wad recruited by Lotto.
Although I dont see Van Rensburg in the official top 10 on the UCI website??
Was there a ruling on this in the meantime?