"The relegation hasn't actually happened yet" - Froome and Israel reluctant of World Tour relegation

Chris Froome was over in Singapore this weekend for the Tour de France Singapore Criterium, and there he has talked about the current situation for the Briton and Israel - Premier Tech.

"There's a lot still up in the air at the moment with the whole relegation system and for us there is nothing guaranteed. With the whole relegation system, I don't see a definitive answer quite yet. The relegation hasn't actually happened yet," Froome told Cyclingnews. Failing to perform throughout the year, and not having a big buffer from previous years, Israel - Premier Tech have finished last out of all World Tour teams in the 2020-2022 UCI Points ranking, 20th out of 18 spots. 

Alpecin-Deceuninck and Arkéa Samsic have scored more points than the Israeli team, and are reported to have all the standards and paperwork needed to confirm their promotion to the top division of men's road cycling. The confirmation hasn't happened yet however, and Froome - as Israel - hang on to that slim chance.

"We're all waiting for that. Things will be a bit more clear after that happens. I'm not privy to the details of that, so it wouldn't be right for me to comment," he continued. Team owner Sylvan Adams has threatened to sue the UCI in case the team was relegated, and the overall feelings seems to be of doubt over the team's actual status. 

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Froome, as many other managers and riders have said, has however criticized the points system. "It definitely needs to be refined further, there are definitely some flaws. First and foremost, with it being a three-year system, that's a death sentence for a lot of teams," he argued. "A lot of teams are living literally year-by-year and if you have to say to a team you're potentially not going to be in the Tour de France for the next three years, a lot of teams will just close their doors.

"Personally, I'd love to see that changed to a one-year system. If you're relegated, that's a bit of a wake-up call, to get yourselves back there, but if it's three years out, you could be losing two teams every time that happens," Froome continued.

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Like Israel - Premier Tech, Lotto Soudal has also been relegated. However, the Belgian team and TotalEnergies have guarranteed wildcards to all World Tour races of their choice due to their points throughout 2022, whilst Israel only guarranteed wildcards to the one-day races. Froome sees more value however in the quality of the results, instead of the quantity of points.

"We won two stages at the Tour this year but when you actually look at how many points we got, it can be equal to having two guys in the top 10 of a French cup race. Those two things, in terms of achievements, don't stack up," he continued. "The way the points have been allocated is the same for everyone but it needs to be refined for it to be a better representative model of professional cycling."

"Every team hopes to be in the Tour de France, us especially. We had great a great Tour this year. We won two stages of the race, most notably the cobbled stage, which was a really big stage. We'd love to be back at the Tour next year," Froome concluded.

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