The WorldTour beckons for the popular underdog men’s team. In this interview, the squad’s general manager tells Escape of the journey to this point and what lies ahead.
Kramon, Cor Vos, Iain Treloar and Gruber Images
For the Uno-X Mobility men’s team, the 2025 season was an exciting one. Steadily developing from its roots last decade as a lowly Continental team, the Norwegian/Danish outfit has been increasingly prominent; it became a ProTeam in 2021, launched a women’s team in 2022 straight into the WorldTour, and made no secret of similar WorldTour ambitions for the men’s squad from 2023 onwards, the same year that the team secured its first Tour de France wildcard entry.
Over the last three years, the men’s squad’s Tour de France presence has been emblematic of its racing style more broadly: aggressive and cohesive. That follows through to its recruitment, which has seen big names (like now-retired figurehead Alexander Kristoff) come to the team and help raise it to the next level; other riders that came up in the Uno-X structure have returned after periods away (like Andreas Leknessund).
And then there are the riders that have been with Uno-X throughout their careers, steadily developing in conjunction with the team: riders like Tobias Johannessen who was sixth at this year’s Tour. Or Jonas Abrahamsen, who spent more than half of the 2024 Tour de France in breakaways and then won the team’s first Grand Tour stage this year. Or Søren Wærenskjold, who won the team’s first classic at Omloop Nieuwsblad in March.
Inside an Uno-X Tour stage win, three years in the making
One of the Tour’s breakout stars finally got the breakaway win his team, Uno-X Mobility, has been chasing. And then things got teary.
Those results, and many others over the three-year license cycle, proved enough to give the team enough points to (probably) realise its WorldTour ambitions, pending final UCI approval and a few other question marks, for the 2026-2028 cycle.
Overseeing much of the team’s progression has been Thor Hushovd, who was appointed general manager of Uno-X Mobility in 2024, with responsibility for both the men’s and women’s squads. Hushovd is something of a Norwegian cycling icon, with prominent results including the 2010 road world title (won in Geelong, Australia), 10 Tour de France stage wins, and two green jerseys at the Tour.
Hushovd wins a stage from the breakaway at the 2011 Tour de France.
Hushovd caught up with Escape Collective on Monday from Milan, where he’d spent Sunday night watching the Norwegian men’s football team qualify for the World Cup with a shock 4-1 win over Italy. Given the Uno-X men’s team’s similar underdog journey to the big leagues, it seemed a fitting parallel.
So, with Hushovd driving around Milan and trying not to get lost, we discussed the journey through the 2025 season, how being a men’s WorldTeam for the first time will change things both in terms of rider and sponsor responsibility, and much more.
This post is for paying subscribers only
Subscribe now
Already have an account? Sign in
Did we do a good job with this story?
👍Yep
👎Nope