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Sylvan Adam, the owner and majority backer of the Israel-Premier Tech team has called on the UCI to end the WorldTour relegation battle chaos and award 20 WorldTour licences for 2023.
The Isreali businessman has invested millions of his personal wealth into the sport in recent years, but he has become so exasperated about the UCI’s insistence on having just 18 teams in 2023 that he is ready to start a legal battle or even walk away from the sport if his team is relegated.
Adams is also ready to take on Tour de France organiser ASO if they continue to stifle the development of the sport, even threatening to create a rival event to the Tour de France to force them to change.
“We have to tell the emperor they have no clothes,” Adams says, using the well known idiom to show he is not afraid to stand up to the Tour de France.
Cyclingnews revealed last week that after an appeal by a number of the teams facing relegation, the UCI is considering changing their rules and awarding 20 WorldTour teams instead of 18, so that none of the 20 teams who have applied for WorldTour status for 2023-2025 would be snubbed on sporting merit. The UCI denied that any decision has been made but is under growing pressure to do so.
Agreeing to 20 teams immediately would end the current fight for ranking points in races and the battle to avoid relegation from the WorldTour. Agreeing to a slightly bigger peloton would allow the best ProTeam of the previous season to be awarded automatic invitations to the Grand Tours and WorldTour races, and races would still be able to award wildcard spots to teams of their choice.
Speaking exclusively to Cyclingnews and Velonews before the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal, Adams did not hold back. For the two-time former Masters World Champion said that a decision to end the relegation battle cannot come soon enough. He detests all the chaos and possible destruction of two teams that it may cause.
“I call it a bastard system that doesn’t work. It’s a bastard system that destroys teams, that is destructive to the sport,” Adams tells Cyclingnews and Velonews during a passionate hour-long conversation.
“As Jonathan Vaughters said, relegation is death. It doesn’t matter which of the teams end up being relegated, it’ll be a disaster because it’s an existential problem. Why are we destroying rather than building?
“EF Education represents the United States. Don’t we want to have a team there? BikeExchange represents Australia, Movistar…
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