The concern is returning among World Tour teams to avoid relegation

With the 2024 road cycling season practically over, teams are already starting to think about the 2025 campaign, which has the peculiarity of being the second occasion in which the World Tour licenses expire. Only the top 18 teams in the international calendar will be able to, on one hand, maintain their category and, on the other hand, move up to it from the Pro Tour. Let's see how the landscape looks.

The 2025 season will once again feature the excitement of promotions and relegations in the World Tour

The game of points returns and which teams will maintain their World Tour category for the next triennium 2026, 2027, and 2028 with a panorama of real tension at the bottom of the standings where several teams, after a couple of very discreet seasons, will face a very complicated situation next year if they want to keep their place in the top category of cycling.

Starting at the top of the standings, we find, obviously, UAE Team Emirates at the top, which with Tadej Pogacar's 25 victories at the highest level is already enough to be the best team of the season. Standing out in the upper part of the standings in a notable ninth place at the time of writing this is Lotto-Dstny, who are part of the Pro Tour category after losing their license from the highest level in the previous three-year cycle.

Something similar happens to the other relegated team at that time, Israel-PremierTech, which will start 2025 comfortably in 14th place, so, as long as they have a regular season, they shouldn't have any problem securing a place among the top 18 teams in the world.

So, if two Pro Tour teams have their place fairly well secured in the next cycle of validity of the World Tour licenses, which teams will give up their place? This is where a 2025 with a dogfight for every point is foreseen, as there are several teams that once enjoyed a high level, now fighting for survival.

In the danger zone, occupying positions 16 to 18, we find Intermarché, DSM, and Cofidis, who have gone quite unnoticed over the past year, and just below, the first team that would lose their category would be Arkéa-B&B Hotels. Following them is one of the revelation teams of this cycle, the Norwegian Uno-X Mobility, who will fight until the last moment for the dream of the top category.

And right behind them is the historic Astana, one of the historic teams in cycling that has fallen into absolute irrelevance in recent years. 2025 will be a very tough year for them as they have a lot of points to recover. It remains to be seen if the card of the new Chinese investor who is joining the Kazakh formation will have an effect in terms of signings and resources to be able to overcome a situation that appears to be tremendously complicated. Without a doubt, one more incentive to follow the next season in great detail.