Uno-X Secures Promotion and Cofidis Saves the Wildcards | Final 2025 UCI Ranking Analysis

After a fierce battle until the last day of the season, Uno-X has secured promotion to the WorldTour with a 397 UCI points advantage over Cofidis. The merger between Lotto and Intermarché will allow Uno-X (19th in the three-year ranking) to obtain one of the 18 WorldTour licenses for the 2026-2028 period. For its part, Cofidis will have its WorldTour wildcards secured for next season, alongside Tudor and Q36.5.

2023-2025 UCI Ranking

During the 2023-2025 triennium, Lotto, Israel, and Uno-X have earned enough points to move up to the WorldTour, while Cofidis will be relegated and Arkéa and Intermarché will not continue as teams. As you can see in the chart above, the last two seasons have doomed Cofidis, with a downward trend year after year. The opposite is true for Uno-X, which started the three-year period with 6,569 points in 2023, reached almost 9,000 in 2024, and finished with almost 11,000 in the 2025 season.

Finally, Astana had 4,400 points spare to maintain the WorldTour license, while Picnic must thank Oscar Onley’s 2,910 UCI points this season, which made the difference over Cofidis.

Both Cofidis and Uno-X have made great efforts to extend their racing calendar in October, both teams among the top 10 teams with the most points this month. Motivation and freshness are crucial in the final races of the season, and Uno-X’s greater depth has been evident, with 13 riders scoring over 500 points this season, compared to only 5 for Cofidis.

Uno-X ended the season with Løland’s surprise victory in the Veneto Classic (1.Pro), but the 254 points earned in the Tour de Langkawi were also key, with Anders Johannessen’s 2nd place in the GC and the sprints by Blikra and Kristoff. In addition, young Johannes Kulset finished in the top 10 in the Coppa Agostoni (1.1), Tre Valli Varesine (1.Pro), Trofeo Tessile & Moda (1.1), and Giro del Veneto (1.Pro). The tireless Jonas Abrahamsen also achieved 7th place in Binche – Chimay – Binche (1.1) and 3rd place in the Giro del Veneto (1.Pro).

Cofidis achieved podium finishes in Asia at the Tour of Taihu Lake (2.Pro) with Aniolkowski and the Japan Cup (1.Pro) with Ion Izagirre, races well chosen by the team to score points. However, they failed to shine in European races, with Benjamin Thomas and Dylan Teuns’ sixth places in the Giro del Veneto (1.Pro) and the Veneto Classic (1.Pro) as their most notable results. Alex Aranburu barely scored 25 points in the six Italian races he competed in.

2025 Ranking

In the ranking for the 2025 season, UAE dominated ahead of Visma, while Astana finished the season in fourth place, maintaining a strong performance throughout the season after an impressive start. On the other hand, Lotto and Intermarché were the worst teams of the year, highlighting the need for the new Lotto-Intermarché team with a larger budget.

Compared to last season, Astana, Q36.5, Tudor, and Lidl-Trek are the teams that have improved the most. Among the teams that have worsened, in addition to Lotto and Intermarché, Ineos Grenadiers stand out once again this year, alongside Groupama-FDJ.

When broken down by race category, we can see that Uno-X has excelled in the continental calendar, earning 62% of its points outside the WorldTour. The Norwegian team was 19th in the WorldTour calendar (they did not race in the Giro or Vuelta), but 3rd in the continental calendar, surpassed only by UAE and Astana. In any case, even on the WorldTour calendar, Uno-X has scored 1,200 points more than Cofidis this season.

Uno-X has also made good use of the Norwegian and Danish National Championships, which are lower level than those in France, where Cofidis mainly competes. This season, Uno-X has earned 420 more points than Cofidis, which has already made the difference in terms of promotion. In total, over the three-year period, Uno-X has scored 1,134 points more than Cofidis in the National Championships.

In the interactive chart below, you can see the UCI points of all the riders of the 24 best teams of the season.

2026 Wildcards

This last month of the season has also decided the wildcards for next year based on sporting merit. The UCI has extended the rights of ProTeams for next season: the top 3 ProTeams will have access to the entire WorldTour calendar (instead of the top 2 as before) and the top 5 ProTeams will also have access to the entire ProSeries calendar. Curiously, the top ProTeams have better rights to choose their calendar than WorldTeams, being able to decline participation in unsuitable or costly WorldTour races whilst being guaranteed participation in any .Pro race – both of which are rights not afforded to WorldTeams.

Tudor and Q36.5 already had their WorldTour wildcards well on track, but Cofidis was threatened by TotalEnergies. In the end, Cofidis’ more extensive calendar secured them the wildcards, despite being relegated. In reality, Cofidis will be in a more comfortable position in 2026, with the entire WorldTour and ProSeries calendar secured and the possibility of skipping WorldTour races they are not interested in. However, they will be under pressure to finish among the top three ProTeams each season to keep their wildcards.

TotalEnergies and Caja Rural will receive wildcards for the ProSeries calendar. Both teams would likely be invited to most of the ProSeries races they wanted to participate in, but having the security of the wildcard will help them better plan their season from the beginning.

There was also a close battle between Bardiani and Solution Tech for the top 30 spot in the ranking and the chance to earn a wildcard for the Giro. Finally, Solution Tech will once again be excluded from the Grand Tours, despite having designed a specific calendar to earn UCI points. Euskaltel-Euskadi will also not be eligible for an invitation to the Vuelta a España. The two new ProTeams for 2026 (Hungary’s MBH Bank and George Hincapie’s Modern Adventure) will also not be eligible for invitations to the Grand Tours in 2026.

With two wildcards for the organizers of the Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia is expected to invite the Italian teams Polti and Bardiani, the Tour de France the French teams TotalEnergies and Unibet Tietema Rockets, and the Vuelta a España two Spanish teams between Caja Rural, Kern Pharma, and Burgos. Cofidis is likely to skip the Giro d’Italia, as there is a busy race calendar in France in May, which could open up the last spot of the Giro to TotalEnergies, Unibet, Caja Rural, Kern Pharma or Burgos.