Groups have a brand new concern on the subject of gaining UCI factors: a brand new rule that limits wildcard invites that Grand Excursions such because the Tour de France can prolong to the highest 50 groups on the UCI World Rankings.
This season was the first 12 months that groups had been relegated from the WorldTour for dropping outdoors the highest 18 within the three-year Staff Rankings. Lotto-Dstny and Israel-Premier Tech dropped all the way down to ProTeam standing involuntarily, whereas Alpecin-Deceuninck and Arkéa-Samsic had been elevated to the WorldTour.
In 2024, Grand Tour organisers can solely choose from the highest 50 groups, and in 2025 the vary shrinks to the highest 40, lastly deciding on the highest 30 groups in 2026.
The Grand Excursions are required to ask all WorldTour groups and the 2 prime ProTeams of the earlier 12 months’s World Rating. These groups had been Lotto-Dstny and TotalEnergies, however Israel-Premier Tech had been prolonged wildcard invites to all three Grand Excursions. UCI guidelines don’t require Grand Tour organisers to ask demoted groups, however different WorldTour stage races are obliged to incorporate these groups within the 12 months following their demotion.
The brand new rule will cease races just like the Vuelta a España from favouring low-ranked home groups. Burgos-BH had been 62nd within the 2022 rankings and earned a wildcard forward of different higher-ranked groups like Uno-X. Caja Rural-Seguros-RGA had been thirty second and in addition received an invite to the Spanish Grand Tour.
A brand new rule additionally covers groups who’ve newly gained a ProTeam licence. The rating of latest groups might be calculated on the factors scored by one of the best 20 riders. That is in distinction to the purpose calculations for current groups whose factors are calculated on riders who had been on the workforce within the earlier season. Riders factors don’t switch together with them to new groups.
The foundations don’t seem to account for double counting of a rider who may switch from an current WorldTeam or ProTeam to a brand new ProTeam.
With these new guidelines, each level will depend not only for groups aiming for the WorldTour within the subsequent three-year cycle however for any workforce with Grand Tour ambitions.
