Jonathan Vaughters criticizes UCI rankings system: "It's promotion/death"

The UCI rankings have been criticized by riders and team managers who are fighting for their place at World Tour level recently, and EF Education-EasyPost manager Jonathan Vaughters has been another figure that has been vocal on the topic.

Vaughters told NBC/Peacock that "ultimately, that really hurt us in the points tally, that decision, which was made for health reasons, hasn't worked out so well for us. So now we're having to chase around the points in all the races and sometimes sending - bluntly speaking, we sent a much better team to the races in Maryland, Québec and Montréal than we did for the Vuelta. And the reason for that is the point system."

The UCI points ranking system has been a big topic of debate this year, as teams realized the risk of relegation (and promotion) and have started to race accordingly to their will of remaining at World Tour level. One of them is EF Education, who were in 16th position. "We've got a great team for Québec and Montréal, we'll score some points with Rigo [Urán] at the Vuelta. I think we're in a good position. But - look at a team like Israel - there are very few ways for them to make it back into the top 18. And Sylvan Adams, the investor in Israel is putting a lot of money into the sport and he's just getting kicked in the shins by the governing body. I don't like to like to see that. They're a good team," he argued.

The American team seems to be succeeding in their task of maintenance, however there is still over a month of racing left where much can change. "It's pretty sad because whatever team does get relegated, that puts them at severe risk with all of their sponsors. The contracts with the riders, the contracts with the sponsors, all of those are predicated on the team being a WorldTour team," Vaughters added. "If all of a sudden, you're a Pro Continental team, none of your contracts are valid anymore."

"In some sports promotion/relegation is no big deal because you're relegated and you get a big fat parachute check and you get every opportunity to work your way back in - it's no big deal. In cycling, it's not promotion/relegation, it's promotion/death," he concluded.