Originally Posted by
taras0000
The elimination of trade teams helps out the smaller countries when it comes to getting qualifying points. When a rider is part of a trade team, their points stay with them, and the national national federation gets to use those points. Countries that don't have riders on trade teams must shoulder the full brunt of fielding riders and getting qualifying points.
There are only so many points available, and a country can only qualify so many riders. Essentially what ends up happening is the powerhouse countries get to double dip on points despite already maxing out the riders they get to send. This leaves the smaller nations to scrap over an ever decreasing supply of points.
Yeah, I kinda agree with this.
The UK was notorious for exploiting this. They would have like 2-3 trade teams in the field (like team KGF) as well as their National Team. They'd take all of the points and leave nothing for the others. The Dutch BEAT team as well. Between BEAT and their National Team, there were no more points available for Sprint events.
Don't get me wrong, the US has done it, too. But, that's why the system is flawed if the idea is to get representation for every country into the PanAms, EU Championships, and Olympics. If left to the old way, with just points, the Olympics would be stacked with riders from maybe 3-4 countries in all track events.