The light is fading on the 2022 road season and with the falling of the leaves, the hopes of at least two teams are being stripped bare as 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Israel-Premier Tech and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lotto Soudal appear to be stuck in the relegation zone in the UCI's 2023🌱 WorldTour sporting criteria. 

We have previously posted an 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:🤪explanation of how the UCI points system works and followed the rise and fall of the 22 teams who aspire to be in the sport's top tier for the next three seasons. No𒈔w, it's time to follow what comes next for the first ꦑteams to be relegated from the UCI WorldTour in this new scheme.

Unlike football, where relegated teams get 'par💎achute payments' from broadcast revenue, there are no such benefits in the sponsor-driven realm of professional cycling. Instead, relegated teams are at risk of being gutted of their rider🐼s and could see sponsors and financiers depart as teams' futures fade.

Already the chaos of the promotion/relegation system has cost Lotto Soudal. Their manager John Lelangue has taken his own kind of parachute out of the team and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:into the organisation of Tour de Pologn🍷e, and in a response to 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:criticism from former manager𒁏 Marc Sergeant, appeared to blame his predecessor for creatin🌺g the holes that sunk the ship.

There are two options for relegated teams - drop down to ProTeam status and hope to take advantage of UCI rules that award automatic invitations or fold. The top two ProTeams of 2022 will be automatically invited to major one-day WorldTour races while only the top ProTeam🌟 wi♐ll get a bid for the Grand Tours.

Israel Premier-Tech aren't in a position to earn automatic Grand Tour invitations as the best ProTeam, even if they opted to remain on the second tier. The team may be looking for a third option as owner Sylvan Adams threatened🎃 to take legal action against the UCI to pressure them expanding the WorldTour from its 18-team limit. Failing that, he's suggested he may pull his money out of the sport altogether.

✤There could be a fourth option if one of the top 18 teams fail to meet other criteria - financi♑al, ethical, organisational and administrative - that the UCI require to gain a WorldTour licence.

Arkéa-Samsic, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:already the target of OCLAESP raids in 2020, now risk losing the points earned by Nairo Quintana in the Tour de France if the Colombian's CAS case loses and his disqualification for 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:tramadol positives ꧒is upheld. They have enough points with🌱out Quintana, and even with the case, they will still most likely meet the ethical criteria.

There have been some concerns over Astana Qazaqstan's future after the team struggled to pay riders on time and faced 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:an investigation in Luxembourg in March. But Cyclingnews understands the team's budget, while small, will keep them in the WorldTour, but the Licencing Commission will be looking closely at their finances. They 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:could pick up Quintana as an easy points win for the coming seasons.

If all goes as planned, and the UCI do not back down on keeping the 2023-2025 WorldTour to 18 teams, and it's hardly likely one🦩 of the top 18 teams will fail to meet t🌱he UCI criteria. So, it is almost certain that the two teams relegated will be Lotto Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech.

On top of a heavy October racing schedule, those riders will be keeping their agents busy as they look to take advantage of clauses in their contracts that allow them to leave if their team loses WorldTour status. The teams will be kept busy negotiat𓄧ing with agents, sponsors and also Grand Tour organisers who could reassure team backers by promising wildcard invitations for next year.

Israel-Premier Tech and Lotto Soudal in theory could be gutted on the transfer mar🍎ket but in reality, with smaller teams on tight budgets and bigger teams almost entirely full with riders on multi-ye꧋ar contracts movement opportunities are very limited.

Israel-Premier Tech are more likely to get gutted by transfers, although their top scorers are toward the end of their careers. 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Jakob Fuglsang hinted at retirement if the team is relegated, while sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo - who finds himself in the same boat as last season when his then-team Qhubeka-NextHash came unraveled - will be a valuable prospect on the market. 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Michael Woods and Simon Clarke, both 36, still have more to giꩲve and could💧 be picked up on a bargain, however teams might be more interested in signing an up-and-coming rider like Corbin Strong or Jenthe Biermans.

Lotto Soudal are less likely to see a mass exodus. Philippe Gilbert is already retiring, and they have a solid roster if they can keep the band together as a ProTeam. Beyond Arnaud De Lie, Victor Campenaerts and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Caleb Ewan, the rest of the roster might struggle to wedge themselves onto another WorldTeam's roster and, with automatic invitations likely for 2023, would be more𓄧 likely to stay p🌃ut.

While the relegation points might be nearly wrapped up, the back-room wheeling and dealing is far fr🧔om over. Transfer season may well extend into January as riders fight to get onto WorldTeams with budgets that areꦉ already tied up.

2020-2022 Team Ranking changes for 3 October, 202⛄2

This week there were six one-day races and the CRO Race contribu🌜ting to the 2022 Team Rankings which, in turn, contribute to the 2020-2022 Team Rankings that will determine which 18 teams meet the UCI's sporting criteria to remain in the WorldTour through 2025.

Cofidis was the big winner this week, with two victories and 426 more points. Bryan Coquard's surprise victory over Arnaud Démare and Axel Zingle's sprint victꦚory in the Fam🦋enne Ardenne Classic along with Max Walscheid's podium in the S🍎parkassen Münsterland Giro lifted the team three places in the three-year rankings. They overcame the effects of the UCI Road World Championships that dropped them to 18th and narrowly nudged BikeExchange-Jayco, EF Education-EasyPost and Ar൲kéa-Samsic down one notch each.

168澳洲5最新开奖结果:BikeExchange-Jayco's week paled in comparison with the previous, and the team only managed to rake in 79 points. 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:EF Education-EasyPost benefitted from sending a strong team to the Italian one-day races, where the talented young Andrea Piccolo picked up third in Coppa Agostoni🎃 and Rigoberto Uran was fifth in Giro dell'Emilia. Arkéa-Samsic packed on 200 more points by stacking their riders in the top of the results sheet in the Famenne Ardennes Classic and Tour Vendée.

The 200 points that 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Arkéa-Samsic added and thꦦe 224 points won by EF-EasyPost offset the danger of Cofidis' upward movement, and although the four teams plus Movistar in 13th ar🍬e separated by just over 300 points, the gap between 18th place and 19th-placed Lotto Soudal is all but unassailable now.

Each week the gap keeps expanding, and Lotto Soudaওl have over 1100 points to make up on Arkéa-Samsic to climb out of the relegation zone, while Israel-Premier Tech have almost 1900 points to make up.

It's still possible, but not plausible, that either team could move up. Movistar gained 553 points this week thanks to 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Enric Mas' win in Giro dell'Emilia, where Alejandro Valv♏erde also landed in fourth. Valverde added a second place in Cop🦩pa Agostoni with Mas in ninth.

The upcoming Il Lombardia is a WorldTour 'Tier 3' race, the highest of the one-day WorldTour races on par with the Tour🔯 of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. The win is worth 500 points, 400 for seco💜nd and 325 for third.

2022 Team Rankings