The UCI accepted the principle in 2025. The scales are now validated. At the World Championships the top 60 score, from 300 points for the winner to one point for 60th. In the final overall standings of the cyclo-cross, track and mountain bike World Cups, the top 40 score, from 200 points down to 3.
One condition: only points from riders among the top 20 of a men’s team and the top eight of a women’s team are added to the team’s total.
Points for staying in the WorldTour, brought back from a cyclo-cross car park. Fine. What I hear is that January mud now counts on the team’s balance sheet, mind you. A 300-point Worlds result is also a bike washed every two laps, a chain rinsed, tyres let down by a tenth of a bar because it was sliding in the corner. I am not saying tyre pressure scores the points. I am saying it does not stop them. And gravel is in there too, with its stones in the cassette. The sports directors will make spreadsheets. Me, I’ll go and buy a new coupling for the hose, then. The old one has leaked since Koksijde, on the coast. Alright?
The scales apply to all four disciplines at the Worlds; gravel is not on the list of World Cups included.
It’s true, we checked: DirectVelo.
