New men’s Continental teams confirmed in US and South Africa by UCI as overall numbers decline by 46%

The Union Cycliste Internationale posted the official list of 2026 Continental teams for the 2026 season on Saturday, with 105 listed for men and 20 for women. This represented a 46% drop in men’s Continental team registrations in one year and a 27% reduction for the women.

Italy led the list of men’s teams with 10, followed by seven teams registered in France, Germany, Netherlands and the United States. Just two years ago there were 178 men’s Continental teams registered worldwide.

In 2024 there were six teams representing Colombia while from North America there were three from Canada and two from Mexico. These countries do not have any registered teams this year.

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However, the number of men’s Continental teams in the US have risen from five to seven in those two years. The longest-running development squad with a UCI licence was Hagens Berman Jayco, now in an 18th edition. The newest squad was APS Pro Cycling by Cadence Cyclery, based in Texas with an 11-rider roster of riders from Ireland, Great Britain and the US. Among the team staff is four-time USPro road champion Freddie Rodriguez.

“One of the goals as a Continental team is to give as many riders as possible the opportunity to still make it, even if it might be a little later in their career. Because rider identification is happening earlier, there are riders being missed [for top tier teams]. We’re trying to foster them and get them ready to be one of those riders to be picked and go on to the next level,” Rodriguez told Cyclingnews.

South Africa was back after a four-year absence with one men’s squad, Team Tshenolo Pro Cycling, which competed on a club level in 2025. The squad features an all-South African 10-rider roster led by former WorldTour rider Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, who returns for a second year. A former GC winner of Tour of Langkawi at Team Dimension Data, the 36-year-old took the silver medal in the time trial at last year’s African Continental Championships, which was won by his new teammate Brandon Downes.

On the women’s side, Italy, Great Britain and Germany led the way with three teams each. Of note were an absence of women’s teams in South and Central America, while there was only one team representing North America, USA’s Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28, now a fourth consecutive season at the Continental level.

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Two years ago there were 56 women’s teams at the Continental level, with the US having a group of five and the Continental region represented with single teams in Canada, Panama and Colombia.