In 2022, when the 2023 promotion/relegation system takes effect, national road championships will have special significance for teams fighting to remain in the World Tour. Each team fights to earn WorldTour "sporting standard" points; only the best 18 teams from 2020-2022 that have applied for a three-year license will meet the sporting standard.

The winner of the national road race championship gets 100 points and the winner of the time trial gets 50 points. It doesn't sound like much, but in the June 21 rankings, Bike Exchange-Jayco is effectively tied for 19th in the 2020-2022 rankings with Lot Soudal, and Israel-Premier Tech is 20th, 486 points behind.

The main battle will be between the bottom five world teams, as prospective World Tour teams Uno X and Total Energy have a long way to go to move up above existing world teams and top pro teams Alcare Samsic and Alpecin Phoenix.

The case of COVID-19 in the Tour de Suisse damaged several teams-Jumbo Visma withdrew from the race and earned zero points for the week's racing; Bahrain Victorious, which lost five riders, earned only 20 points The team's first win of the season came at the end of the first week. Bike Exchange Jayco was also hurt. They started with six riders and lost three during the race, but Michael Matthews led the team to 90 points.

However, it was not enough to hold on to their position, as EF Education-Easy Post had a great race and Nielson Powles finished fourth in the Tour de Suisse to take 543 points. The U.S. team moved up to 17th place, closing in on Movistar (16th), who earned only 166 points this week.

Speaking of Movistar, he has not been scoring many points since the end of the Classics and has not fared well in the Giro d'Italia and is now behind Cofidis in the standings.

Israel Premier Tech has seen a spike in points over the past month. Between Michael Woods' victory in Route Occitanie and Jacob Fuglsang's podium in the Tour de Suisse, Israel Premier Tec has 546 points, putting them in second place behind Beulah Hansgrohe this week, but with 2020 being their debut year on the World Tour and a poor spring this year due in large part to illness and injury, he remains in 20th place. He is only 500 points behind Lotto Soudal and Bike Exchange.

That gap is so close that 100 points for the national title would give them an additional advantage in this week's championship race, as BikeExchange has the majority of its riders from Australia or New Zealand, with both countries hosting championships in January, disadvantage.

EF Education-EasyPost will send two riders to the US Pro Championships, Alex Howes and Sean Quinn. Lawson Craddock will compete from BikeExchange.

Lot Soudal has multiple cards in the Belgian Championships, but not in other countries. The more multinational Israeli Premier Tech has plenty of options in other countries, including Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Latvia, and of course Israel.

With National Championship points dropping to 15th in the road race and 10th in the time trial, this week's races are expected to be more intense than ever. Only the top 10 riders from each team will be added to the standings, but the national championships give riders the chance to add points and push their teams higher in the standings.