"Nick Burns" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<
[email protected]>...
> "Heinz Getzler" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> > It really points to a much bigger problems with the way the World cup points are structured.
>
> Why?
I think that the TDF has unbalanced the overall season. As a result many smaller classics are
suffering. A lot of this is because many of the races are sponsered by smaller companies. It's
possible that ASO Armoury and La Gazetta dello sport acquistions of smaller races could have a
positive impact???
> >The UCI needs to demephasize the number of points that are given in the TDF.
>
> That would change nothing. UCI points are not a top motivator to win the Tour. After all, the
> points are the same for all 3 Grand Tours right down to stage wins. If points were a primary
> consideration, then you would see teams fighting to get in to whichever Tour they thought they
> could gain the most points from (IOW, the easiest Tours to win would be the first priority).
Ok so why not have a team selection based upon a hybrid point system. One could also require a min #
of points for a rider to participate in the TDF. I am not sure how this would work, but one could
have points for participation and bonus points for placing and winning. So a team lets say a team
gets a intial 10 points for participating. Each rider recieves 20 points for participating. The
winner recieves 500 point for winning and 100 points for the top 3 finishers. It's all quite
complicated and the details would have to be worked out so things were fair.
>
>
> >Another possibility would be to do away with points altogether and base the World up on
> >overall time.
>
> No way. Beside, World Cup and UCI points are separate. Also, you would then have to require
> everyone that challenged for the overall to race every event. There is no way anyone would care
> about the overall if that was a requirement. It is rare that any racer races all 10 and only
> recently have the guys even started to care aboutt he overall. It is the individual race wins that
> count the most.
>
> The only way to change things (if you do think they need to be changed) would be to have the UCI
> change larger registration fees (it would actually be a franchise fee), and roll that in to much
> larger prizes for the individual and team World Cup prizes and promotions to make it w worthwhile
> objective. They could also include more perks like giving the top 3 WC teams and the team with the
> overall winner automatic entry in to any race for the next season (including the GTs). You would
> then see a lot more teams trying to tackle to World Cup as a strategy to get in to the Tour de
> France (among other things). They could also give more recognition throughout the year to the WC
> contenders (again, both for individuals and teams). The main point here is that the UCI would need
> to gain a lot more power over the events and the teams and it would take on the character of other
> sports that have team franchises.
>
> Or, we could allow cycling to continue along in the decentralized and unstructured way it has in
> the past and hope for the best.
