Pro-Tour : Fans Opinion

[musette]

Other basic areas to consider with regard to the Pro Tour points scoring system:

>> Point #2: In individual scoring system, Crude Equation of Different Races' Points for Races of the Same Type --> Problem of Over-Generalization

Di Luca scored 51 of his points (more than 1/5th of his points) at the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco, which is among the weakest Pro Tour races. It is problem, I believe, that less important races get equal amount of points as comparable significant races of the same type.

>> Point #3: No points awarded for winning Grand Tour sprinters, young riders, mountains jerseys (depending on the tour, names differ). Why? That's a not bad achievement. Why not even 10 points?

>> Points #4: As mentioned before, no real weighing of individual team members' scores in determination of team ranking

Here are the top four riders of certain top Pro Tour ranked teams. Note how the best ranked teams don't necessarily have the high ranked riders, or even a lot of high ranked riders. Teams listed in order of their Pro Tour team rankings, for selective teams:

TEAM RANKING #1: Team CSC
#7 JULICH Bobby USA CSC 130
#20 BASSO Ivan ITA CSC 86
#25 SCHLECK Frank LUX CSC 75
#26 VOIGT Jens GER CSC 73
Total individual points of top four team riders: 364 points

TEAM RANKING #3: PHONAK
#16 BOTERO ECHEVERRY Santiago COL PHO 95
#30 PEREIRO SIO Oscar ESP PHO 68
#39 MARTIN PERDIGUERO Miguel Angel ESP PHO 53
#60 GUIDI Fabrizio ITA PHO 35
Total individual points of top four team riderS: 251 points


TEAM RANKING #8: DISCOVERY CHANNEL
#4 ARMSTRONG Lance USA DSC 139
#8 HINCAPIE George USA DSC 129
#18 SAVOLDELLI Paolo ITA DSC 92
#34 POPOVYCH Yaroslav UKR DSC 65
Total individual points of top four team riders: 425 points

TEAM RANKING #11: T-MOBILE
#3 ULLRICH Jan GER TMO 140
#5 VINOKOUROV Alexandre KAZ TMO 136
#44 KLIER Andreas GER TMO 46
#45 ZABEL Erik GER TMO 46
Total individual points of top four team riders: 368

Note how DC and TM do not get adequate team ranking "credit" for having some of the top riders. Especially DC, where 3 of their top 4 individual cyclists (ranked by Pro Tour individual rankings) are in the top 20. DC and TM are ranked 8th and 11th, currently, on teams, respectively.

 

[musette]

The breakdown shows how the system needs improvement.

-- Petacchi only gets 16 points from his whole Giro performance, whereas Simoni gets 69.
-- Thor Hushovd gest 7 points for his whole Vuelta performance, whereas Menchov gets 74 points.

--> Shows stage wins at stage races are underrated in this system, relative to GC placement in stage races and wins at one-day races. This could potentially disadvantage sprinters who win a lot of Grand Tour stages (such as McEwen), but who are less likely to win non-stage races.

In fact, McEwen is rated 90th per the Pro Tour individual rankings, with a total of 22 points for what was a very good season.

Giro: 11 points
Tour de Suisse: 1 point
Tour de France: 10 points

Consistent with my indications of what needed improvement in the Pro Tour scoring system for individuals, the following has been proposed by the UCI:

"Sprinters will be more competitive in next year's ProTour, with a new points system to be introduced by the UCI next week benefiting the fast men. The changes will affect stage wins in the grand tours, with 10 points being awarded for a win in a Tour de France stage compared with just 3 this year. In the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, stage winners will gain eight points. In other ProTour stage races, the daily winner will get three points, whereas this year it was just one. It's expected that the points gained for, e.g. winning a classic (50 points), Tour de France (100 points), Giro or Vuelta (85 points), will not change."

Above from cyclingnews.

 

[whiteboytrash]

Som good comments here:

Quick Step boss Patrick Lefévère, who is also president of the Association of Professional Cycling Teams, said he felt the balance sheet on the ProTour “is positive, but it could be still further in credit. The idea at the start was to have the best riders in the best races, but this objective has been far from attained. There are less encounters between the main team leaders. Who really rides from February to October?” he asked in La Dernière Heure.

“I don’t think that it is fair that Armstrong (who only rode four ProTour races this season) and Ullrich (who rode six) are fifth and fourth respectively in the final standings having ridden so little. It is necessary to force the riders to compete in a minimum number of races. And the points allocation is not right either. We won five (of 10) Classics this season, as well as the world title, but we only finished 12th out of 20 in the ProTour rankings,” the Belgian team boss pointed out.

On the plus side, the Quick Step boss thought the level of riding was higher than before and that there are more big teams in the biggest races.

Consistent with my indications of what needed improvement in the Pro Tour scoring system for individuals, the following has been proposed by the UCI:

"Sprinters will be more competitive in next year's ProTour, with a new points system to be introduced by the UCI next week benefiting the fast men. The changes will affect stage wins in the grand tours, with 10 points being awarded for a win in a Tour de France stage compared with just 3 this year. In the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España, stage winners will gain eight points. In other ProTour stage races, the daily winner will get three points, whereas this year it was just one. It's expected that the points gained for, e.g. winning a classic (50 points), Tour de France (100 points), Giro or Vuelta (85 points), will not change."

Above from cyclingnews.