The beginning of the Tour of Italy marks the watershed of the season. The classics season is definitively over and the Grand Tours season is launched. And as often happens in these phases, it's time to take stock. But which ones? Those of the UCI team ranking. A ranking that appears increasingly at the center of debate. And it also emerges transversally in our articles.
How many times have we written about that rider sent to a race with the specific goal of scoring points? And the same goes for the composition of the teams. Simply put, staying in the WorldTour is fundamental, or at least extremely important. Even if you have to have broad shoulders to stay there (both financial and technical): look at what the...Arkea-B&B HotelsIt is very likely that it will close its doors at the end of the year. “We need 25 million euros,” said the owner of the Breton team, Emmanuel Hubert. However, there is cycling beyond the WorldTour.
XDS on the podium in 2025
So what is the photo at the beginning of May? Let's start by considering the year, 2025. Okay, it goes without saying that the dominating one is the UAE Team Emirates of his majesty Tadej pogacar. The Emirati team leads with over 13.000 points. About a third (4.385) of those came from Slovenia, which alone would be the tenth-best team of the year!
Behind the UAE there is the Lidl Trek: Pedersen, Ciccone, Skjelmose, Nys… excellent performances in the monument classics and a lot of points in the bag. And third? This is the real news: the XDS-Astana.
For Vinokourov's boys, things are different. Remember what Mazzoleni told us at the beginning of the year? He wanted to build an alternative schedule to get back on track in the three-year period. Well, the XDS have succeeded completely. They have won 13 races and have always been consistent. Always placed and with more riders even in "minor" races, assuming that minor races actually exist these days. In fact, other teams struggling in the WT rankings are making the same claim, only they're succeeding.
Those who did not shine in the first five months of 2025 are the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, much more lively in 2024, the Team Jayco-AlUla , Picnic–PostNL. While the vertical collapse of the Lot: 24th “without” De Lie.
| TEAM | NATION | STATUS | POINTS |
| 1. UAE Emirates | United Arab Emirates | WT | 82.195 |
| 2. Visma-Lease a Bike | Netherlands | WT | 56.328 |
| 3. Lidl Trek | United States | WT | 43.644 |
| 4. Soudal-QuickStep | Belgium | WT | 42.200 |
| 5. Ineos Grenadiers | UK | WT | 39.075 |
| 6. Red Bull-Bora | Germany | WT | 35.018 |
| 7. Alpecin-Deceuninck | Belgium | WT | 35.004 |
| 8. Groupama-FDJ | France | WT | 30.943 |
| 9. Bahrain-Victorious | Bahrain | WT | 29.799 |
| 10. Decathlon-AG2R | France | WT | 28.796 |
| 11. Lot | Belgium | PRO | 28.705 |
| 12. EF-EasyPost | United States | WT | 27.510 |
| 13 Movistar | Spain | WT | 26.155 |
| 14. Israel-PremierTech | Israel | PRO | 24.803 |
| 15. Jayco-AlUla | Australia | WT | 24.623 |
| 16. Intermarché-Wanty | Belgium | WT | 23.531 |
| 17. Cofidis | France | WT | 21.801 |
| 18. Picnic-PostNL | Netherlands | WT | 21.287 |
| 19. XDS-Astana | Kazakhstan | WT | 21.167 |
| 20. Uno-X Mobility | Norway | PRO | 19.651 |
And the WT three-year period?
And let's move on to look at the 2023-2025 three-year standings, which determines their permanence in the WorldTour. The top 18 remain or enter the first category, while the others are (or become) professionals. A WT who drops back, if she remains in the top twenty (i.e., if she finishes 19th or 20th), can benefit from the parachute: she has the right to participate in the Grand Tours.
The ranking still sees the UAE Emirates, with almost 30.000 points of advantage over the second, the Visma–Lease a Bike. Third, the Lidl-Trek, which after the beautiful spring surpasses the Soudal–Quick-Step. For the rest, positions are almost frozen, except for the decline of Lotto, which loses some to the advantage of Bahrain-Victorious and Decathlon AG2R.
But again, it's interesting to see what happens in the relegation zone. And once again, what makes things exciting is the rise of XDS-Astana. Last year, the gap from 18th place was over 2.000 points: a desperate undertaking, also because these teams have fewer opportunities to catch the “big fish”, when there are sharks like Pogacar, Pedersen, Van der Poel, Vingegaard, Roglic… around who take the most important and lucrative races.
XDS is 19th, but only 150 points behind 18th-place Picnic–PostNL. The game is wide open. And a little further on there is the CofidisTwenty-first and certainly not having an easy life is Arkéa, the last WT in the ranking.
The Italians
We close with the Italian teams, which are essentially three: VF Group-Bardiani, Polti–VisitMalta e SolutionTech-Vini Fantini. Here, the "safety zone," perhaps in this case in the truest sense of the word, is 30th place. We know that only finishing in the top 30 of the UCI rankings qualifies for a Wild Card for a Grand Tour.
Looking at the current season, the best is the Tuscan team, SolutionTech, which is 29th, just ahead of VF Group. While Polti is 32nd. It must be said, however, that these last two teams are at Tour of Italy and they'll have a chance to redeem themselves. Not to mention, and no offense intended, that they have slightly more structured squads.
If we take a three-year snapshot, the situation is difficult in terms of position, but less so when looking at the points. VF Group is in fact 26th, but has a treasure of 3.600 points on the 30th place, occupied by Unibet–Tour de TietemaPolti is 29th, but she also has a safety margin: 2.000 points over the Belgian team, and that's not a small amount.
While SolutionTech is 31st, and has the right to hope for a comeback. The team of Accounts e Get rid of it is just 96 points behind Unibet. Everything remains to be seen.
