{"id":155165,"date":"2025-09-23T10:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T10:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/155165\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T10:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T10:29:10","slug":"uno-x-overtakes-cofidis-for-the-last-worldtour-license-uci-ranking-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/155165\/","title":{"rendered":"Uno-X overtakes Cofidis for the last WorldTour license | UCI Ranking Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a month to go until the end of the season, Uno-X and Cofidis are separated by just 140 UCI points in the battle for the last WorldTour license. The race for wildcards for next season\u2019s WorldTour also remains tight. Pidcock\u2019s podium finish in La Vuelta almost guarantees Q36.5 wildcards for the entire WorldTour in 2026, including the Tour de France, while Cofidis could be left without wildcards if relegated.<\/p>\n

2023-2025 UCI Ranking<\/p>\n

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At the end of this season, the 18 best teams from the 2023-2025 triennium will obtain WorldTour licenses for the 2026-2028 period. Right now, Intermarch\u00e9 remains in 18th place with a lead of more than 1,000 points, so if it continues as a team, it will surely stay in the WorldTour. However, its merger with Lotto seems very likely, so that last free license is being contested between Uno-X and Cofidis.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Uno-X has managed to overtake Cofidis, despite the French team participating in the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a. Cofidis only scored 112 UCI points in the entire Vuelta, finishing just one stage in the top 10 (Coquard 7th in stage 1). Meanwhile, Uno-X secured victories in the Deutschland Tour (2.Pro) with W\u00e6renskjold and in the Muur Classic (1.1) with Abrahamsen, who also finished 2nd in the Maryland Classic (1.Pro).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The season is also dragging on for Uno-X, unable to close the gap with Intermarch\u00e9, which would be decisive if Intermarch\u00e9 continues as an independent team. The Norwegian team\u2019s leader Tobias Johannessen has not performed since the Tour de France, and Magnus Cort is suffering from fatigue after competing in the Tour while sick. Uno-X advised its riders not to participate in the World Championships in Rwanda in order not to jeopardize the end of the season with the team. Only Leknessund traveled to Rwanda, with success (6th in the ITT).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In any case, Cofidis\u2019 poor season is paving the way for Uno-X to join the WorldTour. Its cyclist Piet Allegaert blames injuries<\/a> in an interview to WielerFlits. \u201cI was out for almost half a year with injury, Simon Carr the same. Young talents Eddy Fin\u00e9 and Hugo Toumire both struggled with iliac artery problems. And then Ludovic Robeet recently suffered a stroke. With just 23 riders covering a triple race programme, we\u2019ve been stretched to the limit. The results have been partly lacking because everyone is running on empty.\u201d<\/p>\n

In October, Cofidis will continue to push its cyclists to maximize its chances of remaining in the WorldTour. In addition to competing in all one-day races in Europe, they will travel to Asia for the Tour of Taihu Lake (2.Pro), the Tour of Guangxi (2.UWT) and the Japan Cup (1.Pro). Aranburu, Ion Izagirre and Teuns can score points in hilly classics, while Fretin, Aniolkowski and Coquard will try their luck in the sprints.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Uno-X will travel to the Tour de Langkawi (2.Pro), but will focus more on European races. So far, Uno-X has accumulated 196 racing days across all its races, compared to Cofidis\u2019 263. Although Uno-X is performing better and its cyclists seem fresher, its lead over Cofidis is minimal. The battle will probably remain open until October 19, the last day of competition in the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

2025 Ranking<\/p>\n

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In the ranking so far this season, UAE continues to dominate ahead of Visma and will win the ranking for the third consecutive year. Both teams have dominated the Grand Tours this season, but UAE stands out in the rest of the races, with 86 victories so far this season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In the chart above, we can also see Cofidis\u2019 poor performance in the Grand Tours this season. Uno-X has scored more than twice as many UCI points in the Tour de France alone as Cofidis did in the Giro, Tour and Vuelta combined.<\/p>\n

In the interactive chart below, you can see the UCI points of all the riders of the 24 big teams currently.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

2026 Wildcards<\/p>\n

The WorldTour wildcards will be the other hotly contested battle in the remaining month of the season. To distribute the wildcards based on sporting merit for next season, the annual ranking of teams that are ProTeams in 2026 is taken into account. Right now, Cofidis would be relegated and would not receive any automatic wildcards for the 2026 WorldTour, although it could benefit from the possible closure of Ark\u00e9a.<\/p>\n

Although there will be three wildcards based on sporting merit next year (one more than before), Cofidis is behind Tudor, Q36.5 and Ark\u00e9a, the other relegated team. Pidcock\u2019s podium finish in La Vuelta has put Q36.5 in a relatively comfortable position to secure its place in the next Tour de France and the rest of the WorldTour races. In addition, Pidcock will be able to continue adding to his tally at the World Championships in Rwanda and Il Lombardia.<\/p>\n

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TotalEnergies has also joined the fight for wildcards with an impressive end to the season from Emilien Jeanni\u00e8re, Alexandre Delettre and Sandy Dujardin, especially in one-day races. If Ark\u00e9a folds, TotalEnergies would only need to make up 250 points on Cofidis to secure one of the three wildcards based on sporting merit.<\/p>\n

The other race for wildcards is between Italian ProTeams Bardiani and Solution Tech, who are 30th and 31st in the annual rankings, separated by just 75 UCI points. ProTeams outside the top 30 will not be eligible for wildcards for next season\u2019s Grand Tours. If Solution Tech manages to break into the top 30, it would have a good chance of being invited to the Giro d\u2019Italia, as Bardiani would be excluded. Unfortunately, Euskaltel-Euskadi no longer has a chance of making the top 30 and will be left without a chance of being invited to La Vuelta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a month to go until the end of the season, Uno-X and Cofidis are separated by just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-155165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}