“It forces you to race badly” - Reverberi and Parsani call out UCI points system as 2025 ends

As the 2025 season winds down, the annual debates about how cycling can improve are already heating up. Among the most vocal critics this October are two long-serving Italian managers, Roberto Reverberi of VF Group-Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè and Serge Parsani of Solution Tech–Vini Fantini. Both have denounced the UCI points system that determines team rankings and invitations, arguing that it distorts racing tactics and unfairly punishes smaller outfits.

Reverberi, whose Bardiani squad finished around 30th place in the rankings, did not hold back when speaking to CyclingPro Net. “It’s a situation that doesn’t benefit anyone, because we’re here fighting for a position, racing all over the world,” he said. “In the end, 32nd place is a long way off. This forces you to race badly, even tactically: it forces you to focus not on the final victory but on placings and points, just like the WorldTour teams are doing to secure a spot next year. It’s a fight that makes no sense, also because the organizers decide the invitations.”

For Reverberi, the entire framework misrepresents the sport’s real hierarchy. “I don’t think anything changes from thirtieth to thirty-first place; it’s not the real value of the teams,” he continued. “Also because the points might be earned in much lower categories. And then the points are unfair and poorly distributed: it’s more important to win a 2.2 in Asia than a stage in a Coppi e Bartali, which is a 1.1 and is important. This rule should be reviewed and discussed in the winter, with the game at a standstill, and not force teams to do excessive activity all over the world for this ranking.”

His frustration is shared by Parsani, whose team has also struggled to collect points despite steady performances. “It’s undoubtedly an anomalous ranking,” Parsani said. “Rankings are created when all teams can compete on a certain calendar. We were excluded from races where we could score points, and we had to travel to other countries like Japan and the United States to do so. Not competing in the Giro penalized us significantly, but unfortunately, that’s the UCI’s rules, and we have to abide by them.”

Parsani pointed to the packed and uneven race calendar as a key issue. “Ultimately, though, it’s a somewhat strange ranking. Unfortunately, in this cycling world, the calendar often penalizes us. They put all these races back-to-back, then you have 20 days without racing. Many things are planned this way, and we can only adapt.”