![]() ![]() The star of the fortnight for Cofidis was their 2022 marquee signing Ion Izagirre, who scored big points with 2nd in GC and a stage win in the Itzulia Basque Country. So if, for example, Astana folded, or were denied a WorldTour licence based on other criterion, the fight would be between Israel Premier Tech and Lotto Soudal, with a mere 44 points between them, rather than between those two and Cofidis above them. There is always the possibility that later this year a current WorldTour team may fold or lack sufficient sponsorship to apply for WorldTour status for the next cycle, in which case there would only be one spot in the ‘relegation zone’ rather than two. Last year we saw the folding of Qhubeka as a WorldTour team, which opened up an additional automatic wildcard invitation slot in WorldTour races. Whilst this may be resolved during this year and the team may be able to convince the UCI that they meet the financial criterion in order to receive a WorldTour licence for the 2023-25 cycle, the financial stability (or lack thereof) of at least one WorldTour team is unfortunately a frequent cause for headlines every year. In the past months there have been reports that Astana Qazaqstan has been unable to pay its riders’ wages on time. do they have the financial resources to run a WorldTour team, including paying staff and rider wages. One of these criterion is the applicant’s financial position, i.e. Whilst this series of articles primarily focusses on the UCI points ranking as it pertains to the assessment of WorldTour licences according to the sporting criterion, there are a number of other criterion that are used by the UCI in assessing a team’s application for a WorldTour licence prior to even applying the sporting criterion (this system is fully explained here). Michael Woods (CAN – Israel – Premier Tech) pictured during 61st Itzulia Basque Country (2.UWT) stage 6 between Eibar and Arrate (135.7KM) – Photo: Luis Angel Gomez/SCA/Cor Vos © 2022 As mentioned in last week’s article, Israel have only dropped into the relegation zone recently so perhaps that will serve as a wake up call to the team to focus on the UCI points fight. ![]() This is not an insurmountable gap with more than 6 months to go, but both Lotto and Israel will have to optimise their planning to increase their chances, which Lotto in particular have not been fully committed to. In fact, there is already a gap of more than 1,000 points between Lotto and Israel with respect to Cofidis. The Past Two WeeksĪs you can see, Cofidis is already closer to the group of Movistar, BikeExchange and EF than the relegation zone, with those 4 teams all between 11,000 and 12,000 points. While Cofidis, Arkéa and Intermarché remain on a positive streak, Israel cannot find a way to score points and the prospects of renewal of its WorldTeam licence are worsening by the week. The last two weeks have not led to almost any changes in the ranking of the teams at risk of relegation, but they have served to consolidate trends. ![]()
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