Yah let’s let the guy cut in line. Forget the hard work others did to merit being in those places. Let’s relegate one of the hard earned position holders to the row behind because some super star with little participation during the season decides to show up. Yes we all wanted a good battle between the 2. It was 100% possible but wouts team had him focused elsewhere. Chapeaux to MVDP for earning his start and a great season
Bottom line. A big shame for the spectacle of the world championships when the one rider with a ghost of a chance for challenging MvdP starts back several rows and has to spend the first chunk of the race just getting thru the crowd to the front of the chasers.
I like the idea that has been suggested of allocating starting positions to countries rather than individual riders, or allowing riders to swap within their countries team.
Please stop these fake polemic titles, no-one was punishing WVA, everyone gets treated according to those rules. Why make it sound like they were after him?
In most sports the worldchampion is the strongest one on the day with equal chances for everyone at the beginning. I don't know another sport where they are using a system which rewards participation, a particupation bonus like in primary school.
“participation” is like qualifying. in olympic track for example, the runners with the fastest qualifying times times get the most favorable lanes. what you do leading up to the final race MATTERS. there’s no way to have a start in a CX race that’s neutral, the same for everyone, so there’s going to be SOME system for deciding who gets the best and worst starting positions. how you’ve performed in UCI races prior to the final championships seems fair. everyone knows the rules (as van der poel said) so if you REALLY care about your start at World’s, you know what you need to do…
Really? I’ve never seen a marathon where the elite have to start from a random position and lose precious seconds waiting to move at the gun or having to overtake others. The beauty of sports is their all different because they all have different pros and cons. In fooball, you don’t jusy turn up for a WC, you have to earn your place through the system, in swimming you don’t just get the middle lane in a final, in Ironmen WC, your spot depends on previous performance, in F1, you need every race to become WC unless you’re name is Verstappen or Lando where you could in theory, take a weeks holiday, though I wouldn’t put it past them to have included a disqualification rule there ;-)
Imagine they’d propose the same for the order in the time trial WC where a coach could swap out riders in a different order, there’d be a revolt, you have to earn that last starting position by riding often. Like I said, each sport has and needs its specificities and the nature and fairness of the race decides a lot. This is a creative solution that is interesting at first sight but will lead to abuse and problems, not least when riders who earnt their spot get demoted by their coach. You may just as well suggest splitting the field in 2 or 4 to create semi or even quarter finals and do away with the rows. And what guarantees that this suggestion doesn’t destroy the sport totally when most of the top riders will neglect the season because they know someone else is working for their preferential starting position? It’s not unlike people who pay others to stand in line for them for tickets or special offers.
In most sports the worldchampion is the strongest one on the day with equal chances for everyone at the beginning. I don't know another sport where they are using a system which rewards participation, a particupation bonus like in primary school.
Then suggest they do heats with qualification as they fo in other events with too many participants to give everyone a fair and equal chance. Stop making these kind of posts if you don’t suggest a credible alternative.
In most sports they have a season long series, so the best over a year is the World champion; not a 'one off' event were the best can have an off day and not win
I wish cycling had this model, as you can't fluke a season long series... .
There are so many different sports, and equally many where this is not the case. Football has all sorts of differing championships. Swimming and Athletics are more like cycling, cyclocross is different again. Track cycling is often like tennis. BMX is more like rowing but in the end it’s hard to name more than a couple of sports that have exactly the same championship qualifying and set-up. Yes, in motorsport you usually have to participate in a long line of yearly events to win a championship but when is the last time you saw a driver do any 2 of F1, Rallye, Nascar etc in a season? Practically impossible so don’t forget, if you want to see the likes of WVA and MVDP or even Pidcock and others in several disciplines, it may not be wise to bog them down into choosing one.
yeah, there are some sports that do a season long WORLD CUP WINNER, or some version of it, but even most of THOSE also have a World Championships EVENT. cyclocross is in that category (though the value of the world cup is watered down there due to there being THREE separately scored championship series).
Everyone wants to grab a slice of pie, hapoened in boxing, happening in golf now, trying to happen in club football. Will we need to add undisputed champion in cycling too one day?