"It's not true that no one protested," says Claudio Cozzi with a resentful voice. Have you ever attended a UCI WorldTour meeting? There are 18 teams that, having purchased licenses, are members of the same organization. They arrive at the meetings and are told: «We decided to do it this way!». Period. Have you ever heard of any decisions made in agreement with the teams? Many have complained about the situationMovistar was also at risk, as was Bike Exchange, which has had a license for 10 years…».
Different calendars
La Israel Premier Tech Instead, it was relegated. In the wonderful but in some ways dysfunctional cycling of recent years, what is hard to consider credible is the points system – promotions and relegations – launched by the UCI. It is clear that if the teams do not play in the same… championship, it is impossible for the standings to be reliableSo there are those who competed all year in the WorldTour and those who instead made a killing in the smaller races. Like when in the amateurism of the first and second divisions, they went to race track-type races in the South which gave the same points as the races in the North.
The team of Israeli billionaire Sylvan Adams she ended up among the professionals at the end of a season that was certainly not brilliant, even though he appealed. And since Total Energies, led by Sagan and his companions, did better than them, In 2023, the Israeli team will be subject to invitationsThe wild cards, Cozzi explains, will go to Lotto Dstny and the French team.
How did you take it?
Not good. The World Cup has been postponed, the Olympics have been postponed, I don't know why they continued with this situation, given that already in December someone was complainingOur journey has been very bumpy since the beginning of the season. There were riders who arrived at the races and you had to send them home immediately because they were sick.Vomiting and diarrhea during the stomach virus, or Covid, or fever. Because of problems like this we lost the whole important part of the season. We had some light at the Gran Camino where Woods won the stage, then finished second overall.
We missed you especially in spring…
Ben Hermans hasn't raced this year, and he's always a points scorer. Missing important races like Tirreno, Sanremo, Strade Bianche, Catalunya, the Basque Country, and the classics means you're missing out on a lot of points. At the end of last year we were in the middle of the tableThe year before we had entered the WorldTour with existing contracts, so the team was that, with respect for the riders who were thereIt hadn't even gone badly. We had won. a stage at the Giro with Dowsett and one at the Vuelta with Dan Martin, who had finished fourth. Last year was also a good season with a stage at the Giro and other victories. Unfortunately, this year we were never able to be competitive.People talk, but I know how much we worked.
To try to save you?
We worked for try to resolve the situation, even putting staff and riders under stress. To go and look for the races, realizing that The way the points were divided between the second category races and the WorldTour races is not logicalThere were times when we were doing 2-3 WorldTour races at the same time, while other teams whose names I won't mention, went to the minor races to score all their points.
Being relegated means no longer having the same schedule as before.
Another thing that I think isn't normal is the three-year period until the next promotions and relegations. If they want to do that, so in my opinion the mechanism must be annual, as in all sportsAs it stands now, the wild cards will be given to them Lot , Total Energy which is finished before us, while we will be subject to invitations. Then you look at the level of the teams and think: do the two that have climbed up have the personnel to do the three Grand Tours? Maybe Alpecin, which however lost Merlier and Jay Vine, who won him two stages at the Vuelta. Have Philipsen and Van der Poel, but they too will have to make do.
How stressful was it for the staff and riders?
I tell you that I have never finished as tired as this yearThere were more runs to do. At a certain point Verbrugghe (another Israel coach, ed.) asked me if we should do even more runs. But what more did you want to do? We ran a lot. When the last one, the Veneto Classic, was over, my blood started flowing again., after months of tickets to be made and remade, riders to be put together for the races, bicycles to be moved, the transport. Monstrous, you can't imagine itI've never done so much work in my life…
Is anything changing in the 2023 team?
The roster remains the same, ultimately there will be 26-27 riders. You can't have much less, at least from what I understand, if you want to try to return to the WorldTourDismantling it would be detrimental, because the idea is to build a team that becomes a benchmark. Sylvan Adams did something for cycling. He organized the Giro's grand departure from Israel. He helped Afghan girls come here. He established the Foundation to build a center in Rwanda, which will soon be launched. In short, I hope he can stay in the WorldTour because he deserves it.
