2022 will be a crucial year for many teams as they enter a battle for the 18 available World Tour spots. Over the course of the 2020-2022 seasons, World Tour and Pro Teams have piled on as many points as possible, and the combination of these seasons will decide who gets the World Tour licenses for the 2023-2025 seasons, leading to furious fight for points and tactical changes to many teams' plans.
Team BixeExchange - Jayco DS Matt White has spoken to Cycling Weekly about the current battles that have emerged this year, in order to define which teams will receive a World Tour license for the coming three years: "We don't want to get relegated, it's as simple as that. It's not really been on my mind until this year, but I don't believe the points system is appropriate. It's totally stacked in favour of one-day races."
Currently, Cofidis is sitting in 18th place around 550 points behind Team BixeExchange - Jayco and is in the last maintenance spot in the World Tour. Around 700 and 800 points behind sit Israel - Premier Tech and Lotto Soudal who are sitting in relegation spots currently, as Alpecin-Fenix and Team Arkéa Samsic are having a strong trio of years which bring up their point tally towards a promotion, currently 7th and 13th.
White added: "The points system needs overhauling. It doesn't make any sense that a 1.1 race has such value. Some of these races have three WorldTour teams. How is that worth more than a stage of the Tour de France? If one of our guys finishes fourth today, a WorldTour race, they get nothing, but they could go to Volta Limburg, a 1.1, finish 10th and get 20 points."
"It makes heaps of sense, eh. It's crazy. We're doing more one day races this year than we've ever done. We've never had pressure from sponsors to do these small one-day races that are usually a chore to get to. We've always had the mindset that specific training is more important than going to competitions just to get points, so we've had to adjust this year to make sure we get into the top-18," he mentioned.
Lotto Soudal has also confirmed the change of plans and the balance issues that come with this fight for the lower-tier World Tour teams who are fighting for those valuable points this year, as said by DS Cherie Pridham: "It's a real fine balance. We have to think of the images and a sponsor's right to be proud of victories. You have to manage their expectation as well as points issues. Changing the program and riding more one day races makes more sense, but it's swings and roundabouts.
"We are well aware of the fact that we're in the relegation places but if you start every race thinking like that, putting pressure on people in the wrong place at the wrong time, it has a negative effect straight away. We know where we are, and we've started the season well, already winning 10 times," she concluded.
Actualización tras Flandes: Cofidis continúa ampliando su margen con la zona de descenso gracias a la victoria de Axel Zingle en Vitré. TotalEnergies y Lotto Soudal siguen con mucha ventaja para conseguir las invitaciones WT de 2023. Israel no las tendría ni para las clásicas.
