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World Tour...

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K

kurtinsc

Nov 17, 2009
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this seemed to go under the radar... but it seems like a big deal.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-worldtour-launched

Of note:

"As a result of the re-branded calendar, the criteria for participation in each UCI World Tour event will now be the same. Thus, the 18 ProTeams will be automatically invited and obliged to participate in all UCI World Tour events. Individual race organisers will then be allowed to fill the remaining places with Pro Continental teams of their choice."
 
K

kurtinsc

Nov 17, 2009
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So if I'm reading that right... the whoe "point scoring" thing is out the window. Grand Tour invites will go to the 18 pro-tour teams, and the races get to choose the wildcards after that.
 
staubsauger

staubsauger

Jul 27, 2009
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what a totally bull****. unbelievable. sry but that's the biggest **** i've ever heard. and yeah bmc of course will get a pt license because of his "athletic quality":rolleyes: and would be able to start in so many races the are inadequate at.:mad:

well, moneys starts to say it all now even in cycling. damn, i was praying that it won't become the same way as in football as cycling is a marginal sport.

ps: isn't this now quite the same the pt was in 2005????
 
Armchair Cyclist

Armchair Cyclist

Moderator
Mar 22, 2010
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So much for all the rush to fill the top 17 places on the World Rankings.

No mention of the points tally for non-protour teams to enter events either.

Squads that have neither the depth of squad to be competitive, not a tradition of interest in all three GTs will be obliged to take part in them: Euskaltel for the Giro, whether they want to or not.

And only 4 wild cards for any event: way to limit local additional interest.

I suspect that the 4 wild-card slots will be shared by about 5-6 teams, with some of those being almost ever-present and therefore ProTour by the back door, and the rigidity of division between upper and lower division of the sport will harden. Whether this is UCI's intention or not I guess they will never admit.

And if the criteria for ethical, financial and administrative consideration of future PT applicants is not in the public forum, and the balance between these and the sporting criteria is not transparent, what does anyone gain from a sporting value "calculated each year according to a precise points system."
 
Vonn Brinkman

Vonn Brinkman

Apr 26, 2010
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staubsauger said:
well euskatel will be at the giro next year with anton as one of the main favourites for the gc ;)
Click to expand...

You're right! I hope he does the Classics - Giro - Vuelta next year. He could definitely win one of the two GT's and maybe a classic, I'm thinking. Oh god I am already nostalgic while the season hasn't finished!
 
Dekker_Tifosi

Dekker_Tifosi

Mar 13, 2009
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Basically what they did is:

Take the 2005 Pro Tour back as it was initially. Lose 2 teams (18 instead of 20) and change some races (Montreal and Quebec instead of Zurich and Eindhoven).

That's it.

Funny. It's just the Pro Tour back in disguise
 
ak-zaaf

ak-zaaf

Mar 11, 2009
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Just give every ProTour team the chance to cancel on 1 GT, 1 shorter stage race and 1 one day race (no more or Canada will have no participants) throughout the season.

Except for the TDF this should give some room for wildcards in the other GT's, teams with lower funds can skip Australia, nobody has to go to Poland...
 
J

jae2460

Aug 19, 2010
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At least it will reduce the politics (i.e. excluding Astana from the Tour even though the team had completely changed) and Radio Shack being excluded from the 2010 Vuelta, 2010 Giro, etc. :p
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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Make it so that, if requested, those 18 MUST be invited, but don't make them obliged to attend. Otherwise you get teams turning up to races where they're just making numbers up while outside teams who build their entire seasons around these races can't attend. This just made the Giro pretty stupid, since we know almost for certain that Acqua e Sapone and Androni are two of the wildcards.

Are they bringing back the PT leaders' jersey too?
 
Arnout

Arnout

Mar 10, 2009
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Libertine Seguros said:
Make it so that, if requested, those 18 MUST be invited, but don't make them obliged to attend. Otherwise you get teams turning up to races where they're just making numbers up while outside teams who build their entire seasons around these races can't attend. This just made the Giro pretty stupid, since we know almost for certain that Acqua e Sapone and Androni are two of the wildcards.

Are they bringing back the PT leaders' jersey too?
Click to expand...

That's what the agreement between the Giro and Euskaltel for the past year was. RCS invited them to all their races, but because both RCS and Euskaltel are grown up there was no problem for other races if Euskaltel decided to skip the Giro, which they did (and it was good for both). They will have a problem now, as they will only have a squad of 22 riders.

I hope that teams get the chance to turn down the invitations. It will make racing more interesting.
 
J

JayZee

May 8, 2009
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So are the the Grand Tour organizers on board this time? The article didn't make it clear. I assume they given that they did get the reduction in automatic qualifiers they wanted all along. I like the general idea of all 18 PT teams automatically in each PT race. So much simpler. But I also think a PT team should be allowed to opt out of at least one GT and maybe a couple of other week long or one day races as others have suggested. That would help their budgets and give Continental teams a better selection of races.

What I would also like to see is a relegation type plan for the bottom two or three teams and the top two or three continental teams. That would make things interesting. They could do it over two or three year period to balance stability for the sponsor against the need to be competitive at each race.

Anyway, I hope the PT/World Tour (interesting choice for a name - did McQuaid want to be a in a band or something?) works better this time.
 
Armchair Cyclist

Armchair Cyclist

Moderator
Mar 22, 2010
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So PT ranking, rather than top 17 positioning, becomes all important once again:

Time for a reminder of the 13 teams who are looking for the 8 available places on the gravy train (10 teams are guaranteed their ProTeam licences for at least one more year)

Astana
Bbox (if they last another 24 hours)
BMC
Cofidis
Euskaltel
FdJ
Fly V
Geox
HTC
Liquigas
Movistar
Schluxembourg
Vacansoleil
(I'm assuming that no fairy Godmother has appeared to rescue Milram)

Five of this bunch will be dependent on invitations (or have the liberty to concentrate on 2 GTs and avoid trips to Canada and Australia, depending on how you look at it)
 
J

JRanton

Apr 2, 2010
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From those 12 teams (not including Bbox), you would think Astana, HTC, Liquigas and Movistar are assured of having their licenses renewed.

You would think Schleck's team will definitely get one too.

Really can't see Vacansoleil getting a licence so that leaves three teams missing out.

On that basis three out of these six teams will miss out:

Geox
FDJ
Euskaltel
Cofidis
Pegasus/Fly V
BMC

I'd imagine BMC will get one and I'd have thought they'll want two World Tour French teams so either FDJ or Cofidis will get a licence with the other missing out.

So Sastre and Menchov for Geox vs Sanchez and Anton for Euskaltel. Both Span(ish) teams and I can see at least one missing out. Probably Euskaltel? That would solve the Euskaltel at the Giro problem anyway.

Pegasus/Fly V could come into the reckoning if they sign some big names but based on their current roster they have no chance.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
JayZee said:
So are the the Grand Tour organizers on board this time? The article didn't make it clear. I assume they given that they did get the reduction in automatic qualifiers they wanted all along. I like the general idea of all 18 PT teams automatically in each PT race. So much simpler. But I also think a PT team should be allowed to opt out of at least one GT and maybe a couple of other week long or one day races as others have suggested. That would help their budgets and give Continental teams a.
Click to expand...

My reading is that it just adds, Paris-Nice, Tirreno Adriatico, Milan San Remo, Paris Roubaix, Fleche Wallone, Liege Bastogne Liege, The Vuelta and Giro Di Lombardia to the existing pro tour races. NOT the Tour and Giro.

Interesting that all pro tour teams will effectively be forced to race the vuelta, so the wild cards will almost certainly go to spanish teams.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Dekker_Tifosi said:
Well your reading fails then.
Click to expand...

Well is there definative information somewhere showing what races are in the world tour?

edit: ok, found it.
http://www.uci.ch/templates/UCI/UCI2/layout.asp?MenuId=MTUyMjQ&LangId=1

and the giro and tour are included, my confusion was by cycling news not listing the giro and tour on the historical schedule as they should be

18.01.2011 23.01.2011 Tour Down Under AUS UPT
06.03.2011 13.03.2011 Paris - Nice FRA HIS
09.03.2011 15.03.2011 Tirreno-Adriatico ITA HIS
19.03.2011 19.03.2011 Milano-Sanremo ITA HIS
21.03.2011 27.03.2011 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya ESP UPT
27.03.2011 27.03.2011 Gent - Wevelgem BEL UPT
03.04.2011 03.04.2011 Ronde van Vlaanderen / Tour des Flandres BEL UPT
04.04.2011 09.04.2011 Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco ESP UPT
10.04.2011 10.04.2011 Paris - Roubaix FRA HIS
17.04.2011 17.04.2011 Amstel Gold Race NED UPT
20.04.2011 20.04.2011 La Flèche Wallonne BEL HIS
24.04.2011 24.04.2011 Liège - Bastogne - Liège BEL HIS
26.04.2011 01.05.2011 Tour de Romandie SUI UPT
07.05.2011 29.05.2011 Giro d'Italia ITA HIS
05.06.2011 12.06.2011 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré FRA UPT
11.06.2011 19.06.2011 Tour de Suisse SUI UPT
02.07.2011 24.07.2011 Tour de France FRA HIS
30.07.2011 30.07.2011 Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian - San Sebastian ESP UPT
31.07.2011 06.08.2011 Tour de Pologne POL UPT
08.08.2011 14.08.2011 Eneco Tour --- UPT
20.08.2011 11.09.2011 Vuelta a España ESP HIS
21.08.2011 21.08.2011 Vattenfall Cyclassics GER UPT
28.08.2011 28.08.2011 GP Ouest France - Plouay FRA UPT
09.09.2011 09.09.2011 Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec CAN UPT
11.09.2011 11.09.2011 Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal CAN UPT
15.10.2011 15.10.2011 Giro di Lombardia ITA HIS
 
powerste

powerste

Jun 15, 2009
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One way to look at this is to hope that the GT organizers aren't really on board (as in, for the duration) with this new World Tour. Once they start screaming about UCI arm-twisting, we'll all have something besides doping to debate. :D
 
jaylew

jaylew

Mar 19, 2009
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Great news. You wonder why they couldn't come to this compromise a few years back. I'm really glad they did away with that points-cost thing for non-PT teams(if that's indeed the case).

I agree that a team should be allowed to get out of a few events, though. Maybe you say PT teams are required to do at least 22(or some other number) of 26 events. To protect the individual event, you have a minimum of 15 PT teams required. 1st 3 teams who apply get to skip that event.
 
Tuarts

Tuarts

May 25, 2010
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I think its a good idea, some sort of universal system needs to be in place but the UCI need to make sure they don't micro-manage things too closely. I think a CQ points ranking is a must for the whole season, be it included or parallel to this.
 
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