Until now, very few had realized that victories in cycling give teams points. Suddenly, madness has broken out and many teams have decided to do without a rider in the Vuelta (and the same thing happened in the Tour) to take him to less important tests, which score points and thus avoid the new invention of the Cycling Union International (UCI). this year there is relegation to second Division for the two worst teams in the main category, the UCIWorld Tour, which implies, as the main damage, that in 2023 they are not invited to the main races, including the Tour, the Vuelta and the Giro.
The teams that opted to focus the entire season on the big three, in the case of Movistar, are now paying the consequences, at a time when they pray that Alex Aranburuwho has not been brought to the Vuelta, fill the bag of the team in the Limousin Tour, win the French test and contribute 125 points to the Spanish team, which is suffocated. They are the ones that close the descent, where Lotto (which has come to the Spanish round with a laughing team) and Israel, the only one that seems totally condemned to Second, are now condemned. Groups such as Cofidis, EF, Movistar and Lotto are fighting to avoid relegation. The loss of category implies less media coverage to their brands and be aware all year long not only to be invited to the big three, but also to races like Paris-Nice, the Voltathe Paris-Roubaix or the Tour of Flanders.
Valverde’s complaint
“The fight for points totally throws you off-center at a sporting level,” he complained this Thursday Alexander Valverde, who has never run thinking that his team could go down. The truth is that the distribution of points is a real aberration. For example, it pays more to win the Andratx Grand Prix (125 points) than a Tour stage (120).
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And if the two Canadian races that take place on the last weekend of the Vuelta are won, the same points are added as a victory in Paris. Nonsense, although the system is in force since 2016 and the teams have only complained now when they have seen the danger.
Thus, for example, the misfortunes of Enric Mas that torment him this season have caused Movistar to lose at least 750 points. In the Vuelta the circumstance can arise, in a breakaway, that a team starts shooting from behind because a rider is escaping that can condemn them to Second and disregard the general.