The latest standings update in the UCI WorldTour relegation battle has seen Israel-Premier Tech drop further away from survival as several teams strengthened their status with a haul of points in recent races: the Tour de Luxembourg, Tour of Slovakia, Giro della Toscana, Coppa Sabatini, GP de Wallonie, Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen, Primus Classic, Gooikse Pijl and GP d’Isbergues.
The Israeli squad has struggled all season but since the last update on September 13, they now lie 1,597.17 points away from the sought-after 18th spot in the UCI team rankings.
Point hauls from Corbin Strong and Guillaume Boivin for fifth places at the GP de Wallonie and Primus Classic, respectively, did little to improve their situation. Strong and Boivin knocked Carl Fredrik Hagen and Itamar Einhorn off the top 10, so of Strong and Boivin’s combined 170 points the yield this week was only 79, further highlighting the importance of not just the points scored, but the riders scoring them.
They are still in the game, though, with 22 major races remaining between now and the end-of-season triple-header on October 16 at the Japan Cup, Chrono des Nations, and Veneto Classic. Thousands of points remain up for grabs during the series of smaller one-day races – as well as the Worlds road race (600 points), Il Lombardia (500), and the Tour de Langkawi (a total of 1,070) – left to run over the coming weeks.
It’s far from mathematically over for Israel-Premier Tech – even if rumours of the UCI expanding the WorldTour to 20 teams and team owner Sylvan Adams talking of potentially suing the UCI hint at varying conclusions to the team’s battle to stay at cycling’s top table.
One spot further up the table in 19th, Lotto Soudal picked up 320 points during the past week. But 18th place is now held by BikeExchange-Jayco after strong performances by Cofidis, who moved ahead of the Australian team and EF Education-EasyPost.
The result of the week’s shuffle means the Belgian team lies 652 points away from 18th, a 50-point gain – and might have been closer if it wasn’t for Arnaud De Lie getting caught in a late crash at the Primus Classic.
The young sprinter has led Lotto’s charge this season with 2,095 points and added 40 at Gooikse Pijl, while Caleb Ewan (85 points at Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen), Andreas Kron (50 at Coppa Sabatini), and Jasper De Buyst (40 at GP de Wallonie) also contributed.
There’s still some gap to close for the team, though they are at least going in the right direction….
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