Several Spanish race organizers are working on submitting a reform proposal for the points system to the UCI, reports Marca. The plan is to reduce the points gap between one-day races and multi-day stage races, so that stage races will face less pressure in the future.
According to the Spanish newspaper, several stage races are under pressure because of the points system. Since relatively more points can be earned in one-day races, more and more teams are choosing to focus on one-day events. The paper mentions XDS Astana as an example – in 2025, the team earned a large portion of their UCI points in one-day races.
The race organizers cite the Tour of Oman as the most well-known example of the 'distorted' points system. In the past, the Tour of Oman had six race days; nowadays, the race consists of five stages and the Muscat Classic, a one-day race, is also organized to boost the total number of UCI points available. While a stage win in the Tour of Oman yields about 25 UCI points, a victory in the Muscat Classic on a comparable course with the same riders brings in a whopping 250 UCI points.
Key points
This needs to change in the future. The proposal soon to be sent to the UCI includes several core ideas: each stage in a stage race will earn points worth seventy percent of a one-day race of the same level (WorldTour, ProSeries, or lower).
Additionally, the total points per race should be allocated fifty percent to the final general classification, forty percent to the stage winners, and ten percent to the secondary classifications. This way, the initiators hope that riders who finish high in a general classification can bring home a relatively large amount of UCI points.
So far, the UCI has not made any statements regarding the reform proposal.
