Jonathan Vaughters, the CEO of the EF Education-EasyPost team was unequivocal in his criticism of the UCI’s WorldTour promotion/relegation system, calling it “promotion or death” while speaking to former rider Christian Vande Velde during the NBC/Peacock Vuelta a España stage broadcast on Tuesday.
EF Education-EasyPost are currently 16th in the 2020-2022 team rankings that decide the sporting criteria for only the top 18 teams to be included in the 2023 WorldTour, having clawed their way out of 18th over the past two months of racing.
Although the team have turned their fortunes around, Vaughters blamed the points structure – which heavily favours one-day races at the ProSeries and 1.1 level compared with Grand Tour stages – and the pandemic for the team’s earlier position, saying the team has been penalized by a decision to limit their calendar amid pandemic in 2020 to keep the team riders, staff, and the community safer.
“Ultimately, that really hurt us in the points tally, that decision, which was made for health reasons, hasn’t worked out so well for us,” Vaughters said during the broadcast. “So now we’re having to chase around the points in all the races and sometimes sending – bluntly speaking, we sent a much better team to the races in Maryland, Québec and Montréal than we did for the Vuelta. And the reason for that is the point system.”
EF Education-EasyPost weren’t the only team to limit their racing before vaccinations were available. BikeExchange also skipped the March 2022 races along with UAE Team Emirates, Astana, Movistar, Ineos and the now-defunct CCC team.
“We just felt like it wasn’t particularly the greatest idea just to chase around every last little race that we could, and that decision has really come back to bite us. It’s unfortunate.”
After the Maryland Cycling Classic, EF Education-EasyPost extended their lead over BikeExchange-Jayco and Movistar and sit more comfortably in 16th, and Vaughters said he isn’t worried about the team being relegated.
“We’ve got a great team for Québec and Montréal, we’ll score some points with Rigo [Urán] at the Vuelta. I think we’re in a good position. But – look at a team like Israel – there are very few ways for them to make it back into the top 18. And Sylvan Adams, the investor in Israel is putting a lot of money into the sport and he’s just getting kicked in the shins by the governing body. I don’t like to like to see that. They’re a good team.”
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