Some of that improvement was down to a rider who transferred to Uno-X at the beginning of this year, Magnus Cort. The 31-year-old Dane won the Arctic Tour of Norway, the Veneto Classic and a stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné. In addition, the team’s veteran sprinter, 37-year-old Alexander Kristoff, registered eight wins while 24-year-old Søren Wærenskjold had six.
It’s true that almost all the team’s wins were in second- and third-level races but they added up to enough points for Uno-X Mobility to rank 18th in UCI’s World Team standings, the last available spot to qualify for automatic invitations to World Tour races. The team will begin 2025 ranked ahead of three current World Tour teams, Arkéa–B&B Hotels, Cofidis and Astana Qazaqstan.
Retaining that status until the end of next year, when relegation and promotion will be decided, won’t be easy, especially as both Astana and Cofidis have been very active on the transfer market. As has the team Tudor Pro, which sits four spots behind Uno-X in the UCI rankings but has acquired the services of Marc Hirschi, from UAE Team Emirates, and Julian Alaphilippe, from Soudal–Quick Step.
Uno-X have so far not shown the same interest in signing new riders, acquiring only the 26-year-old puncheur Andreas Kron from Lotto Dstny. Other than that, the team has promoted two young riders from its development team, the 19-year-old sprinter Henrik Pedersen and the 21-year-old climbing talent Simon Dalby. Kron had a disappointing 2024, with several DNFs on his resume for the year, and the two youngsters appear to have promise but seem to still be far from being competitive at the top level.
All of the team’s current riders are either Norwegian or Danish and it declares on its website that its goal is “to nurture and develop the talents of Scandinavian cycling.” However, on the same site, general manager Thor Hushovd – who, in a stellar career, won 10 stages of the Tour de France, two Tour Škoda Green Jerseys and the 2010 World Championship Road Race – declares that he has more ambitious goals: “I aim to lift the team to the top level so that we can compete in the biggest cycling races and be part of the big arenas.”
With Astana, Cofidis and Tudor clearly pushing to reach the World Tour level, every Uno-X rider will have to surpass their past performances for the team to have a chance of making it to the top level. Wærenskjold seems to be the most promising rider. He is only 24 and had an excellent year, winning the Baloise Belgium Tour, and the Tour Poitou and finishing a decent ninth in the Paris-Roubaix. The 1,042 points he amassed in 2024 were crucial to putting the team in its current position. As were the 1,442 points collected by Kristoff and the 1,242 harvested by Cort. These three riders were responsible for nearly half of the team’s UCI points.
But Kristoff will be 38 next July and Cort will turn 32 in January. Road racing is increasingly becoming a young rider’s sport so they will have to stay sharp next year and avoid injury. But perhaps that won’t be enough. As of this writing, Uno-X Mobility has 26 riders under contract for 2025. This suggests that they are either negotiating with riders at the end of current contracts or looking to the transfer market for additional help.
If Hushovd wants his team to receive an automatic invitation to the Tour de France next year, he will need to hire some bigger guns. The question is if it will be possible for Uno-X Mobility to achieve that ambition while maintaining its Scandinavian identity.
