Some teams are practically relegated and others are rising. How is the UCI ranking going?

The classification of the World Tour is revolutionized after the dispute of a Giro d'Italia 2025 in which XDS-Astana has consolidated the upward trend that it has maintained since the beginning of the season, while for others like Arkéa-B&B Hotels, Cofidis or Picnic-PostNL things are starting to become dramatic.

The Giro d'Italia adds excitement to the fight to maintain World Tour status

This 2025 is the year of the expiration of the World Tour licenses after completing a new triennium. This means that, at the end of the year, only the 18 teams that have accumulated the most UCI points during these three seasons will have the right to a license of the highest category in cycling, or in other words, they will have access without any other conditions to the best races on the calendar.

The rest will have to settle for belonging to the Pro Team category, in which only the two best teams each year have the right to compete in World Tour events, with the rest of the invitations depending on the organizers.

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The classification in the hot zone, that is, the one occupied by teams at risk of losing their category and the Pro Teams with the best performance over these three years, has been tightening in recent months, and after the Giro d'Italia, the tension to avoid relegation has increased exponentially.

Special mention to the season of XDS-Astana, which at the beginning of 2025 was facing a very complicated situation that they have managed to turn around with an almost constant presence in the Top10 of each race, and they have finished consolidating throughout a fantastic Giro d'Italia in which, in addition to this constant presence in the top positions, they added the victory in the mountain classification achieved by Lorenzo Fortunato and the double by this cyclist and his teammate Christian Scaroni who finished second and first respectively in stage 16.

At the other end, we find a lackluster Arkéa-B&B Hotels that can't seem to get ahead and already holds the 18th position in the classification more than 3,000 points behind, forcing the French team to scrape points from wherever they can in the second half of the season if they don't want to be relegated. Picnic-PostNL and Cofidis seem to be following the same path, teetering on the edge, occupying the 18th and 19th positions in the classification respectively. A place in the World Tour that they will surely have to fight for between them with a difference of just 100 points.

Regarding the Pro Team teams, since the 2024 season it seems quite clear that both Lotto and Israel-PremierTech, both in a comfortable position in the standings, have their World Tour spot secured for the next triennium. Now, among these teams, it remains to be seen what a always combative Uno-X Mobility will be capable of, who, despite being about 2,000 points below Picnic-PostNL, are able to score where least expected, and who knows, if at the end of the season they will also be in a position to fight for a place at the top.

It is also necessary to take a look at the annual classification, which defines which Pro Team teams have a guaranteed spot in World Tour races next year. For now, Uno-X and Cofidis, if their relegation is confirmed, are the best positioned on this list. It is striking here that Tom Pidcock's Q36.5 team wouldn't even secure the third place that grants an invitation to one-day World Tour races.

On the other hand, there is the Top30 classification, the only teams that could be granted an invitation to World Tour races. For now, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and Burgos-Burpellet-BH are outside the danger zone. However, the situation of Euskaltel-Euskadi is becoming worrying in this aspect, occupying the 33rd position in the classification but with a significant gap lost compared to the 30th position now held by Polti-Visit Malta.