The CEO of British bike brand Factor, Rob Gitelis, has spoken out in response to the ongoing WorldTour relegation battle.
Speaking exclusively to Cyclingnews, Gitelis described the current system as ‘very half-baked’, agreeing with EF Education-EasyPost manager Jonathan Vaughters’ recent claim that it could spell the death of a team.
As the 2022 season nears its end, the impending cut-off for the UCI’s three-year ranking system is drawing ever closer, and with it the prospect of two teams being relegated from the sport’s top tier. While the UCI has suggested it is considering a reform, right now the system mandates that there will be only 18 teams in the WorldTour in 2023, despite 20 teams vying for a license.
Gitelis’ company, Factor Bikes, has been a sponsor of Israel-Premier Tech, one of the teams currently at risk of being relegated from cycling’s top tier, since 2020. Their current contract finishes at the end of this season.
Despite much of the focus being around that 18th spot and a WorldTour license, Gitelis explained that for Factor – and for other sponsors too – the cut-off is not whether a team has a WorldTour license but an invitation to the Tour de France.
“There’s relegation, and there’s not being in the Tour de France,” Gitelis explained. “Unfortunately, the Tour de France is so important to our industry.
“In almost all of the studies that are done, the value of the Tour de France is almost 50% of the whole year’s value.”
In that respect, there is a potential safety net for relegated teams, with the top two non-WorldTour teams each year earning automatic wildcard entries to the Grand Tours, while the third-placed get invites to WorldTour one-day races such as Paris-Roubaix.
“We look at it as ‘okay, you’re not in the WorldTour, but you’ve gotten one of those two spots, which means you can ride all over the world for races’. To me, that’s business as usual,” Gitelis said.
“However, if you get relegated and you’re in that third spot, which is the one where you get all the one-day WorldTour invites, but you’re not invited to the Grand Tours, then all bets are off because the value of the sponsorship then changes quite a bit.”
As it stands, Israel-Premier Tech are in that third spot. Lotto Soudal – the other WorldTour team currently in the relegation zone – and TotalEnergies are both above them in the 2022 ranking, so they would not be guaranteed a place at the Tour de France.
Who pays the bills?
Gitelis explains that for most…
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