WHAT WE'VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

NEW UCI RANKINGS ARE CONFUSING

When Greg Van Avermaet was asked about leading the UCI’s new ‘One Day Race World Ranking’, the Belgian’s response was: “What exactly are you talking about?” The new regulations were supposed to make it easier and simpler to track rider performances throughout the season, but the memo clearly hadn’t got all the way around.

The new point scoring system was nestled among a host of other changes the UCI unveiled for 2019. The ‘WorldTour’ ranking has been scrapped, leaving a refined version of the World Ranking. Additional ‘One-day’ and ‘Stage race’ rankings have been created, meaning riders who regularly race against each other will now be comparable.

Perhaps the reason Van Avermaet was so confused was the fact he hadn’t actually raced yet when he was told he was already at the top. Unlike the old ranking system, whose clocks were reset to zero at the start of each season, in the new World Ranking leagues, points are rolled over from the previous year – similar to the ATP ranking in tennis.

In the long run, things should be much simpler. The new rules are meant to make it easier to judge who is the ‘best’ rider and make it something riders and teams want to aim for, while avoiding situations like in 2017, for example, when Van Avermaet won the WorldTour ahead of Chris Froome despite the fact that the Belgian’s points all came in the spring classics and Froome’s came from winning grand tours.

The message is definitely simple. It just seems the UCI hasn’t been great at telling everybody about it.