UCI to give points to more riders for WorldTour team rankings in 2017

The UCI announced rule changes for 2017 on Thursday that revamp the WorldTour points structure for individuals and for teams, notably expanding the number of points-scoring riders for the WorldTeam ranking to include teams' entire rosters.

Previously, rankings of WorldTour teams were set based on the performances of a team's top five riders. That system has been scrapped in a move that favours squads with depth: "This change should encourage better performances from the whole team because results achieved by all a team’s riders will be taken into account," read the UCI release.

In addition, points in the WorldTour races will go to 60 places for the final classification of stage races or one-day races, up from 20, providing more opportunities for riders to score points.

The new points structure continues to provide heavier weights for the winner of the Tour de France, but now with more points: 1000 points goes to the Tour winner (up from 200), 800 for runner-up and 675 for third. The Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España podiums provide 850, 680 and 575 points for the top three.

Similarly, stage wins in the Tour de France earn more points than in the Giro or Vuelta, with 120 points, up from 20.

Points for the major one-day events like Paris-Roubaix now start at 500, up from 100 for the winner, while shorter stage races and semi-classics like E3 Harelbeke earn 400 points. The new WorldTour races - Tour of California, Strade Bianche, Tour of Qatar and others - award a range of 300 points for the winner down to a single point for 56-60th.

The UCI also announced it had unified the points scale between the WorldTour individual rankings and World Rankings, scrapped the nation ranking for the WorldTour in favour of the rolling 12-month World nations ranking, and boosted the points for the Tour de l'Avenir to reflect its importance.