Nairo Quintana‘s disqualification from the Tour de France has been damaging for Arkéa-Samsic for a number of reasons, but it could well place their future at risk, with the loss of rankings points pushing them back down the WorldTour queue.
The French team currently operate at second-division level but have long looked near-certain to earn promotion to the WorldTour as one of the top 18 teams on the UCI’s three-year rolling ranking.
However, the potential loss of Quintana’s points from the Tour after his tramadol positives could make their situation a little more precarious again.
The UCI did not issue its normal weekly points update last week as news of Quintana’s disqualification was announced, but the latest ranking was published this week and the Colombian’s points still stand as of August 23. That is, presumably, pending his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
If he were to lose his appeal, Arkéa-Samsic would lose 455 points for Quintana’s sixth place overall finish and other stage placings at the Tour. At present, having earned a couple of hundred points over the past two weeks, they are in 14th place on 14776 points, but without Quintana’s points that would be 15th place, within 400 points of the three teams below them, and a gap to 19th of less than 1000 points.
Quintana also withdrew from the Vuelta a España to fight the tramadol case, removing another source of points for Arkéa-Samsic. Meanwhile, the case could cast a huge cloud over the WorldTour battle should it drag on and remain unresolved by the time licences are handed out towards the end of the year.
The fright zone
The uncertainty surrounding Arkéa-Samsic is the chief point of interest in the latest rankings, with relatively little change elsewhere.
The middle of August is a quieter period in the racing calendar, with the Bemer Cyclassics and European Championships among the main point-scoring events along with ProSeries races the Arctic Race of Norway, Circuit Franco-Belge, and the Tour of Denmark, and several .1-ranked one-day races.
As a result, there hasn’t been a huge haul of points on offer since the last rankings update on August 9, but there are still some points of interest to take a look at in the latest update.
Lotto Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech continue to lie outside the all-important top 18 teams. Clustered above, with under 300 points separating them, are Cofidis, BikeExchange-Jayco, EF Education-EasyPost, and Movistar – the latter just 625 points…
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