Spin Cycle: Musical chairs, WorldTour-style

For those not at the top of the WorldTour team rankings, deciding what races to target and which riders to use has become more strategic than ever.

Do you take much notice where your favourite team is on the UCI WorldTour rankings?

Completely understand if you don’t, but you should.

Because at the end of every three-year cycle, only the top 18 teams are assured of WorldTour status – meaning automatic entry to the three Grand Tours and the best one-day Classics including the five Monuments.

The WorldTeams at the bottom of the list (or outside the top 18) face relegation to ProTeam (previously called Pro Continental) status, and, should they desire, any ProTeams inside the top 18 have the opportunity to snatch the revoked licence of the aforementioned worst-performing WorldTeams.

Suffice to say the calculations are complicated, but in this 2022 article (read: How does the UCI WorldTour points system work?) Cyclingnews’ Laura Weislo explained how the current system works, with the first cycle (2023-25) ending just last season.

As Weislo explains, “The World Ranking teams points system tallies the points scored by the best 20 riders who are under contract with the team, and are published on Tuesday each week.

“Riders earn points in races according to the various WorldTour tiers, ProSeries, Class 1 races or various championships.

“The points for each rider are tallied each week, the team rankings determined by the top 20 scorers. Then, every three years, the team points for the previous three seasons determine who will be in the WorldTour for the next three years.”

(To see how points are scaled at WorldTour, ProSeries and Class 1 races, the Olympic Games and national championships, you can read the UCI Regulations here, pages 77-86.)

No prizes for guessing who was at the top at the conclusion of the 2023-25 cycle: UAE Team Emirates-XRG took line honours, followed by Team Visma | Lease a Bike, with Lidl-Trek rounding out the podium.

But guess what?

Four ProTeams made the top 20: Uno-X Mobility (11th place), Tudor Pro Cycling Team (13th), Israel-Premier Tech (14th), and Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team (19th).

Consequently, these WorldTeams had their heads on the chopping block: Team Jayco AlUla (16th), Team Picnic PostNL (17th), Groupama-FDJ (18th), Cofidis (20th), Arkéa-B&B Hotels (21st), and, drum roll, please, in 24th place, the worst-performing WorldTeam, Intermarché-Wanty.

Jayco AlUla: 2025 not a disaster, but not quite enough, either

Thankfully for them and Aussie cycling fans, Team Jayco AlUla kept their WorldTour licence, as did Team Picnic PostNL and Groupama-FDJ United. Cofidis was relegated to ProTeam status, Arkéa-B&B Hotels folded, and Intermarché merged with Lotto to become Lotto-Intermarché.

Season 2025 was by no means a disaster for Team Jayco AlUla; from its inception in 2012 and to this day, a team majority-funded by Melbourne businessman Gerry Ryan. (Thanks again, Gerry.)

In terms of race wins, 2021 was their most barren: 9 victories, Cameron Meyer’s national road champs win in Buninyong and Simon Yates taking the ninth stage of the Giro d’Italia the highlights.

The team’s most prolific year was 2018, where they amassed an astonishing 37 wins including six Grand Tour stages and overall victory for Yates at the Vuelta a España. 2014 and 2019 weren’t bad, either, with 35 victories apiece.

Their 19 wins last year, however, was six short of Season 2024.

They won the national time trial and road race with two Lukes, Plapp and Durbridge, replicating their achievements in 2024. They won two stages of the Giro (Plapp and Chris Harper).

Armed with new signing Ben O’Connor, they went into the Tour de France with high hopes on GC but that failed to materialise, the West Australian nonetheless taking a magnificent win on the queen stage of the race.

And with British rider Paul Double, they won a stage and the overall classification at the final WorldTour event on the calendar, the Tour of Gangxi – which may have saved them from relegation.

A leaf out of the Astana playbook

Judging by how they’ve gone so far this season – as of April 2, leapfrogging an extraordinary nine places to be the seventh-best team in the world – my feeling is that Team Jayco AlUla has taken a leaf out of the XDS Astana Team playbook.

You see, at the end of the 2024 season, the Astana Qazaqstan Team was in 21st place. With one year remaining on their WorldTour licence and with two ProTeams ahead of them, to avoid relegation, they knew they needed to get better – and fast.

As they saw things, to take on the might and power of UAE Team Emirates, Team Visma | Lease a Bike, Soudal Quick-Step, Lidl-Trek, and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at the biggest races offering the most points was a risky proposition.

So, management decided to target mostly non-WorldTour events, which offered less points but a higher chance of success.

By season’s end, with 11 different riders, they scored a whopping 32 race wins – 20 more than in Season 2024. Just two were WorldTour victories – one at the Tour de Romandie and another at the Giro.

Amd guess what? They moved from 21st to 4th place – a staggering seventeen places!

A Moneyball-style of cycling

In a similar vein, Team Jayco AlUla moved into seventh spot largely through success at ProSeries and Class 1 level, one or two rungs down from the WorldTour.

Swiss rider Mauro Schmid has been their standout rider, whose annus mirabilis has gone like thus: 2nd GC, Tour Down Under (2.UWT); 4th, Mapei Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (1.UWT); 1st, Muscat Classic (1.Pro); 1st, Stage 3 and 4th GC, Tour of Oman (2.Pro); 31st, Milano-Sanremo (1.UWT); 1st, Stage 5, 2nd, Stages 1, 3, 4, and 1st GC, Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali (2.1).

The next biggest mover in the first quarter of 2026 is Lotto Intermarché. When they were separate teams, they were ranked 23rd and 24th at the end of last season.

But thanks to four of their riders, they’ve moved out of the doldrums and into 12th place – all achieved outside the WorldTour calendar.

Pursuing points over a podium?

Some critics say certain teams facing relegation are no longer racing for the win, but rather minor placings in pursuit of points rather than glory.

I can’t say I’ve seen a swathe of evidence supporting this theory.

If you did a poll of all WorldTour riders, I’m certain the majority would say that, first and foremost, they go for victory with themselves or a member of their team; only when that is out of reach is there a fight for the podium.

Yes, the fight for places beyond the podium has intensified, but for me that’s a good thing because at this level, a place inside the top 20 is still an honourable result and worth fighting for.

Besides, a cycling team is a business and for a sponsor, large or small, being present at all WorldTour races can mean the difference between continuation or cessation of their financial commitment; in almost all cases in pro cycling, sponsorship is a branding exercise more than anything.

We’re only a few months into the 2026-28 WorldTour cycle, but it’s clear to me some teams are playing a Moneyball-style of cycling, and honestly, I’m digging it.

Editor’s note: The above analysis was calculated from the WorldTour team rankings as at April 2, 2026.

Following the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) and Paris-Roubaix, UAE Team Emirates-XRG continue to hold first place on 10446.4 points, followed by Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe (7687.9 pts, up four places) and Team Visma | Lease a Bike (7545.4 pts, down one place).

Team Jayco AlUla has since dropped one spot to eighth place (4244 pts), and Lotto Intermarché dropped three places to 15th (3078 pts).