UCI President David Lappartient has said he is open to making some adjustments to the points system that decides the promotion and relegation from the men's WorldTour but has reiterated that he is against a closed, franchise system, as often seen in North American sports.
However, one WorldTour team manager has told Cyclingnews that the teams have not been informed of any plans to change the points system and are expecting the 2023-2025 points system to be the same as the last three years.
Last week, Lappartient insisted that the 2023-2025 WorldTour would be limited to 18 teams, despite 20 teams currently fighting for the places.
Lotto Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech currently face relegation but some teams could start legal action against the UCI rules believing the COVID-19 pandemic was a 'force majeure' that disrupted the chase for points during the last three seasons. Israel-Premier Tech team owner Sylvan Adams has been particularly outspoken.
"If I lose my sponsors and it costs me millions, somebody has to make me whole. If I show that they do not apply the rules consistently, I think I have a very good case," Adams recently told Cyclingnews and Velonews in a long interview.
Lappartient is confident the men's WorldTour relegation system will stand up to any legal challenge but appeared to open the door to changing the points system when facing questions from the media at the UCI Road World Championships in Australia.
"Maybe we can have a look to make some adjustments if necessary," Lappartient suggested.
"I think it will be discussed, but it will not be a complete revolution in the system because we need to keep a certain balance. But it's true that we can sometimes discuss if the gap is enough, or not, between the WorldTour and Class 1. and ProSeries races.
"Everybody's asking for the system to be changed, but nobody is sending a proposition to the UCI," Lappartient lamented.
"So that's why we will work on this and we want to publish something before the end of the year, at the beginning of next year, because the system has to be approved before the beginning of the [next] three-year cycle."
Lappartient made it clear that a closed franchise system is a red line for major race organisers, who want to maintain control of at least some of the teams they invite to races via wild cards.
"Some stakeholders wanted to have a sort of closed system like in the NBA but that's not the DNA of our sport," Lappartient argued.
"That was clearly also the red line and to avoid a war with the organisers, so the compromise between the stakeholders was to have this system with a three-year ranking and to keep only the top 18 teams.
"In football, if you are last in the Premier League or Division One, then you will be relegated. So yes there are potentially some consequences but this is part of the sport, we have to accept the sport's result."
