Promotions and relegations in the World Tour: the road season has ended and these are the teams that are moving up and down in category

With the races of the last weekend, the 2025 road cycling season can be considered concluded. A campaign that also marks the end of the three-year validity period of World Tour licenses in a tremendously tight finish where the last spot in the top category has been decided in favor of the Norwegian team Uno-X Mobility at the last minute. This is how cycling looks for the next three years.

Lotto, Israel-PremierTerch, and Uno-X will be World Tour teams for the next three seasons

By just a handful of points, Uno-X has managed to surpass Cofidis with the season coming to an end. Uno-X benefits from the spot left vacant after the merger of Lotto and Intermarché-Wanty, who a few days ago formalized their joint registration with the UCI for the 2026 season.

Fortunately for Cofidis, the debacle has not been absolute, and they have managed to secure a position among the top three Pro Tour teams in the annual standings, allowing them, after these invitations are expanded, to participate in all events integrated into the World Tour.

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Speaking of invitations, the other two spots as the best Pro Tour teams during 2025 that will give them the right to be present in all World Tour competitions will go to Tudor and Q36.5 after a year in which both teams have been clear contenders in the races they have participated in, achieving some tremendously notable results such as Tom Pidcock's podium in La Vuelta.

In addition to Cofidis, Arkéa-B&B Hotels also loses its category, and after failing to find a sponsor for the next season, they will end their journey in cycling after 21 years of presence in the international peloton.

This last season of World Tour licenses validity has brought us a myriad of emotions regarding the clarification of the teams that would occupy a position among the top 18 of the triennium, starting with an XDS-Astana that began the season almost doomed and that, thanks to the economic boost provided by XDS and a selected calendar to scrape points in the most unexpected places, has managed to comfortably retain its category.

Also starting 2025 on the edge was Picnic-PostNL, however, Oscar Onley's fantastic Tour de France, which concluded in 4th place overall, and a solid second half of the season have also helped the Dutch team to survive without excessive worries.

Another interesting fact at the end of this season was to know which teams would occupy a position among the top 30 in the annual standings, an essential requirement for a team to be eligible for an invitation to participate in a grand tour. Unfortunately, Euskaltel-Euskadi did not achieve the goal of entering these positions, so they will not receive an invitation from La Vuelta to participate. Invitations will once again be two after being increased by one this season, and in the case of La Vuelta, they are likely to go to Kern Pharma, absent this year, and Burgos-Burpelet-BH, although we will have to wait to know them, as is the case with the invitations for the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France.