The light is fading on the 2022 road season and with the falling of the leaves, the hopes of at least two teams are being stripped bare as Israel-Premier Tech and Lotto Soudal appear to be stuck in the relegation zone in the UCI’s 2023 WorldTour sporting criteria.
We have previously posted an explanation of how the UCI points system works and followed the rise and fall of the 22 teams who aspire to be in the sport’s top tier for the next three seasons. Now, it’s time to follow what comes next for the first teams to be relegated from the UCI WorldTour in this new scheme.
Unlike football, where relegated teams get ‘parachute payments’ from broadcast revenue, there are no such benefits in the sponsor-driven realm of professional cycling. Instead, relegated teams are at risk of being gutted of their riders and could see sponsors and financiers depart as teams’ futures fade.
Already the chaos of the promotion/relegation system has cost Lotto Soudal. Their manager John Lelangue has taken his own kind of parachute out of the team and into the organisation of Tour de Pologne, and in a response to criticism from former manager Marc Sergeant, appeared to blame his predecessor for creating the holes that sunk the ship.
Israel Premier-Tech, who do not even have the advantage of being in the position to earn automatic Grand Tour invitations as the best ProTeam (even if they opted to remain on the second tier), have gone silent after owner Sylvan Adams threats to take legal action against the UCI or pull his money out of the sport altogether.
Arkéa-Samsic, already the target of OCLAESP raids in 2020, now risk losing the points earned by Nairo Quintana in the Tour de France if the Colombian’s CAS case loses and his disqualification for tramadol positives is upheld.
There have been some concerns over Astana Qazaqstan’s future after the team struggled to pay riders on time and faced an investigation in Luxembourg in March. But Cyclingnews understands the team’s budget, while small, will keep them in the WorldTour. They could pick up Quintana as an easy points win for the coming seasons.
If all goes as planned, and the UCI do not back down on keeping the 2023-2025 WorldTour to 18 teams, it is almost certain that the two teams relegated will be Lotto Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech.
On top of a heavy October racing schedule, those riders will be keeping their agents busy as they look to take advantage of clauses in their contracts that allow them to leave if their team loses…
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