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Battle for 2023-2025 WT licenses

Page 19 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Jonathan Vaughters commentary: If we have to have relegation in cycling, there are better ways to do it

"It hurts the athletes. It destroys teams. It lowers the value of the sport. And it encourages doping.

I recognize that statement may become a headline, but I’m pointing out that when things get desperate in sport, it often comes at the cost of fair play. It does all these things because it creates widespread instability (just like doping) as sponsors no longer feel safe in the sport of cycling and teams crumble.

Sponsors don’t want to bounce around from team to team in pursuit of a stable platform that will actually compete in the World Tour."

Encourages doping? Come on, let's be serious... Only a ranking system encourages doping, of course rolleyes. The ambition for wins in the biggest races of the world, even without a ranking system, is clearly something that doesn't encourage doping.

And how so does it lower the value of the sport, Mr. Vaughters? If we have teams like Israel Retirement Nation or in the past things like Footon - Servetto who are fodder to the back of the pack being entitled to a permanent spot while others, who didn't arrive at the right time, can't achieve that, how does it lower the value of the sport?
 
Jonathan Vaughters commentary: If we have to have relegation in cycling, there are better ways to do it

"It hurts the athletes. It destroys teams. It lowers the value of the sport. And it encourages doping.

I recognize that statement may become a headline, but I’m pointing out that when things get desperate in sport, it often comes at the cost of fair play. It does all these things because it creates widespread instability (just like doping) as sponsors no longer feel safe in the sport of cycling and teams crumble.

Sponsors don’t want to bounce around from team to team in pursuit of a stable platform that will actually compete in the World Tour."
LOL. Encourages doping? don't worry Jonathan, doping was already there before relegation! and this system won't change anything.
 
So there will never be new teams in the World Tour unless one collapses. A team like Arkea, with WT ambitions, can never enter the WT.
Vaughters does see merit in promotion and relegation - after all it's how he got to the top table in the first place. It's just that he has had more trouble with keeping a team running at that level, hence the multitude of sponsors and mergers, so while his team is one of the likely relegation candidates or has to arrange its calendar around maximising points to avoid it, he's dead set against it. If EF were safely ensconced within the top 10 teams' ranking he would think it was just fine and dandy, because the only people that need worry about relegation are others. Vaughters has been dressing up self-serving protectionism - plan after plan to ring-fence the top level and prevent other people doing what he himself did in case he is the victim - for over a decade, and some people still see him as this benevolent character that only wants what's best for cycling, not realising that in the eyes of Jonathan Vaughters, what's best for cycling is to have Jonathan Vaughters front and centre in it.
 
Vaughters does see merit in promotion and relegation - after all it's how he got to the top table in the first place. It's just that he has had more trouble with keeping a team running at that level, hence the multitude of sponsors and mergers, so while his team is one of the likely relegation candidates or has to arrange its calendar around maximising points to avoid it, he's dead set against it. If EF were safely ensconced within the top 10 teams' ranking he would think it was just fine and dandy, because the only people that need worry about relegation are others. Vaughters has been dressing up self-serving protectionism - plan after plan to ring-fence the top level and prevent other people doing what he himself did in case he is the victim - for over a decade, and some people still see him as this benevolent character that only wants what's best for cycling, not realising that in the eyes of Jonathan Vaughters, what's best for cycling is to have Jonathan Vaughters front and centre in it.

Every person in sport sees problems with decisions when they're the victim, but you don't like Vaughters so he must be thrown under the bus for expressing something most others in his situation would also say.

I don't like him either, to be fair, and generally do agree that it's lame to be against a relegation system in principle.
 
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Every person in sport sees problems with decisions when they're the victim, but you don't like Vaughters so he must be thrown under the bus for expressing something most others in his situation would also say.
I give Vaughters more stick because he is so keen to make himself the mouthpiece for progress in cycling, which all too often in his mind coincides with what is best for Jonathan Vaughters. He has been pushing his "no relegation, guarantee my team a place at the top table in perpetuity" plans in a variety of forms for a decade, so I slate him more for it. Just as there are a lot of people who slate race routes on the board, but me and Red Rick tend to get the most stick about it because we're the most vocal and repetitious.
 
Usually, they don't hand out wild cards to non-Australian teams but perhaps that's just because no teams want to spend the money of going all the way down under.

Yeah that's true because extra teams are expensive. Only Australian teams can get one. But they are technically obligated by the UCI to hand one to Total and/or Lotto if they want one. Total won't ask, question is if Lotto wil. They do have Ewan ofcourse and the team was succesful there in the past, but it is a pretty expensive trip and it isn't good for preparation purposes either. Next years parcours isn't that sprint friendly either so maybe Ewan doesn't even want to go, and a lot of Lotto riders have had a long season because of the point situation. So they might just skip it. I would go tho cause it's probably the lowest level WT race on the calendar and it has a ton of points and there's also the Cadel Evans thing a week after.
 
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Yeah that's true because extra teams are expensive. Only Australian teams can get one. But they are technically obligated by the UCI to hand one to Total and/or Lotto if they want one. Total won't ask, question is if Lotto wil. They do have Ewan ofcourse and the team was succesful there in the past, but it is a pretty expensive trip and it isn't good for preparation purposes either. Next years parcours isn't that sprint friendly either so maybe Ewan doesn't even want to go, and a lot of Lotto riders have had a long season because of the point situation. So they might just skip it. I would go tho cause it's probably the lowest level WT race on the calendar and it has a ton of points and there's also the Cadel Evans thing a week after.

Yeah I agree with you, I had simply forgotten to take the fact that Lotto and Total can decide everything into account.
 
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Yeah I agree with you, I had simply forgotten to take the fact that Lotto and Total can decide everything into account.

The weird thing this year is that WT licenses are only given out in november so teams only know in november if they need to ask for a WC. Must be pretty last minute for TDU to add a team at the end of november. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Lotto just forgets to asks out of habit.
 
Possibly, Ewan could ride for the Aussie development team which is usually the 19th team - In saying that this is usually a youth focused squad and in the past the Aussie champ of 2019 Friedberg was denied a spot because he did not fit into the youth profile - I suspect Lotto will accept a wildcard.
 
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Well yes that's what I meant, the next relegation cycle.
It's difficult to project out for 3 years but teams without riders that gain big points in single events will be the ones in trouble.
EF (now with Carapaz) should be better off than this round. Cofidis, Arkea-Samsic and DSM will likely be near the relegation zone fighting it out with the top 4 Pro teams.
 

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