Under-23 Nations’ Cup set to end as WorldTour feeder teams increasingly take over men’s development pathway

The UCI have announced that the long-standing men’s under-23 road race series, the Nations’ Cup, will no longer take place after 2025, as a result of the changing face of under-23 development pathways.

The Under-23 Nations’ Cup was first organised in 2007, introduced by the UCI as a way to foster road talent in the under-23 categories before riders could turn professional.

As part of a wide range of changes announced ahead of the annual UCI Congress at the Road World Championships, the governing body confirmed that the series would not continue in 2026. The Junior Nations’ Cup, also organised by the UCI, will continue to run.

The end of the Under-23 Nations’ Cup marks the culmination of a gradual change in the under-23 racing scene, where national teams and federations once undertook much of the responsibility for developing riders, but now the category is dominated by development trade teams, many of them branches of or affiliated to WorldTour teams.

For the UCI, ending the Nations’ Cup was a matter of balancing the value in the current development climate against the financial contributions they make to organising the series.

“It has been a discussion, because what you can see today is that most of the under 23s, when they reach a good level, they are now professional, whether in the WorldTour, a ProTeam, or a Continental team. And so the value of the U23 Nations’ Cup was not in fact very very high,” UCI President David Lappartient told the press on Friday.

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!

“It was difficult also for the nations to secure a good level of participation. You can see that the professional teams take care of the athletes, even sometimes when they are juniors.”

With this change, all men’s under-23 races – with the exception of the Tour de l’Avenir, and of course World, Continental and National Championships – will be raced by trade teams as the development pathways fully shift into their hands.

This marks a significant change from when the Nations’ Cup started. Back then, top-level teams were mainly interested in proven riders, whereas now recruitment has turned into an arms race to secure talent early, with WorldTour teams signing riders into the pipeline when they are very young, still juniors in many cases.

You may like

“The reason why we created this before was not exactly the same situation as today,” Lappartient explained. “Before, the teams were not really invested into supporting development teams, whether for under-23 or now even juniors, so for this reasons they have a programme with their [national] development teams. And this is why we took the decision that it was not really necessary to keep this Nations’ Cup.”

The Tour de l’Avenir, which has long been the pinnacle of the Nations’ Cup and the biggest indicator of future talent, will continue to be raced by national teams. The women’s Tour de l’Avenir is also raced by national teams, despite there being no women’s Nations’ Cup.

“The Tour de l’Avenir, which is a kind of ‘final’ of this U23 [season], will remain, and it’s also by national teams, which is great, and it will continue like this,” Lappartient confirmed.

“We are not the organisers, but we also help by contribution to this race, because it’s a race also for the nations, so we help financially in this race, as a kind of final. So this race will continue. And of course the UCI World Championship will continue.”

The under-23 fields at World Championships have also changed in line with the changing face of development, with ProTeam and WorldTour riders no longer able to compete in the under-23 men’s races as the events try to focus on still-developing talent. In the women’s under-23 road events, run separately for the first time in 2025, there is no restriction.

The end of the under-23 Nations’ Cup marks the culmination of a gradual change in development pathways, but also likely ends the hopes of there ever being a women’s Nations’ Cup for under-23 riders. More women’s under-23 races are slowly appearing, but the pathway for female riders is still very small, with most having little choice but to jump from junior to professional.

Subscribe to Cyclingnews to unlock unlimited access to our coverage of the first-ever UCI Road World Championships on African soil. Our team of journalists will bring you all the major storylines, in-depth analysis, and more directly from the action in Rwanda as the next rainbow jerseys are decided. Find out more.