The decision was made last week on the basis of the number of UCI points garnered by the teams over the past three years and, the UCI said, “following a full review of the documentation received regarding different criteria for attribution,” including ethical, financial, administrative and organizational. A total of 18 licenses were granted to teams to race on the WorldTour until the end of 2025, when another, similar selection will be made for the following three years. Lotto Soudal finished 19th in the final points rankings, almost 1,000 points behind the last team to make the cut, Arkea-Samsic. Israel-Premier Tech was a further 1,000 points adrift.
However, Lotto–Soudal – which will be racing as Lotto Dstny in 2023 – will receive automatic invitations to WorldTour and Grand Tour races as the top ProTeam of 2022, as will Peter Sagan’s Team TotalEnergies. The news is less rosy for Chris Froome’s Israel-Premier Tech, which will need to be accorded wild card invitations to be able to race in the three Grand Tours.
Team owner Sylvan Adams had threatened to take the UCI to court, arguing that cycling’s ruling body should have evoked “force majeure” because of the three-year Covid epidemic, and then expanded the WorldTour to 20 teams. The UCI did not agree, and so far there has been no news of a lawsuit over Israel-Premier Tech’s relegation.
The UCI also said in its press release, that Team DSM had been placed on a kind of probation, during which its second and third years will be “conditional on the provision, during the season, of additional documents related to the financial criterion.”
The UCI also announced that it had granted 15 licenses to teams in the Women’s WorldTour for 2023, including Israel Premier Tech Roland and Fenix-Deceuninck. At the end of the 2023 season, the 15 licenses will be awarded for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. “From the 2026 season onwards, the 15 UCI Women’s WorldTour licences will be allocated for a period of three years, in line with the duration of the UCI [Men’s] WorldTour licenses,” the organization said.
MEN’S WORLDTOUR TEAMS (2023-25)
- AG2R CITROEN TEAM (ACT – FRA)
- ALPECIN-DECEUNINCK (ADC – BEL)
- ASTANA QAZAQSTAN TEAM (AST – KAZ)
- BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS (TBV – BRN)
- BORA – HANSGROHE (BOH – GER)
- COFIDIS (COF – FRA)
- EF EDUCATION – EASYPOST (EFE – USA)
- GREENEDGE CYCLING (BEX – AUS)
- GROUPAMA – FDJ (GFC – FRA)
- INEOS GRENADIERS (IGD – GBR)
- INTERMARCHÉ – CIRCUS – WANTY (ICW – BEL)
- JUMBO-VISMA (TJV – NED)
- MOVISTAR TEAM (MOV – ESP)
- SOUDAL QUICK-STEP (SOQ – BEL)
- TEAM ARKEA – SAMSIC (ARK – FRA)
- TEAM DSM (DSM – NED)
- TREK – SEGAFREDO (TFS – USA)
- UAE TEAM EMIRATES (UAD – UAE).
WOMEN’S UCI WORLDTOUR TEAMS (FOR 2023)
- CANYON//SRAM RACING (CSR – GER)
- EF EDUCATION – TIBCO – SVB (TIB – USA)
- FDJ-SUEZ (FST – FRA)
- GREENEDGE CYCLING (BEX – AUS)
- HUMAN POWERED HEALTH (HPW – USA)
- LIV RACING TEQFIND (LIV – NED)
- MOVISTAR TEAM WOMEN (MOV – ESP)
- TEAM DSM (DSM – NED)
- TEAM JUMBO VISMA (JVW – NED)
- TEAM SD WORX (SDW – NED)
- TREK – SEGAFREDO (TFS – USA)
- UAE TEAM (UAD – UAE)
- UNO-X PRO CYCLING TEAM (UXT – NOR).
- ISRAEL PREMIER TECH ROLAND (CGS – SUI).
- FENIX-DECEUNINCK (FED – BEL).
