In order to do that, a team has to gain enough UCI points in the three-year period ending with December 31 of this year (though, since the racing ends earlier, the winners and losers will be known earlier) to rank in the top 18 teams in the peloton.
However, the UCI has loosened up the regulations somewhat and has given invitations to Pro-level teams to the Classics and the Giro d’Italia based on the team’s personnel. For example, the Swiss Pro team Q36.5 has received these invitations based primarily (perhaps even totally) on the presence in their squad of Tom Pidcock. The same applies to another Swiss Pro team, Tudor Pro, which has both March Hirschi and former two-time world champion Julian Alaphilippe riding for it.
With most of the big races still to come, it’s a little early to draw conclusions. But two trends have become clear in the early going: the relentless progress of the XDS Astana team and the seemingly inevitable relegation of the French WorldTour team Arkéa–B&B Hotel, which is having sponsor problems – and therefore cannot keep or sign top talent.
XDS Astana went all out in the transfer market at the end of last year and has also gone all out on the road, sending riders to practically every race, no matter how small – or big. As a result, the team currently ranks 19th, with 19,906.34 points, a mere 1,500 points out of that all-important 18th spot, currently occupied by Picnic Post NL. It stands on the brink of WorldTour status because it has amassed 6,286.66 points so far this year. Only Tadej Pogačar’s overall-top-ranked UAE Team Emirates–XRG, with 12,688.42, and Lidl-Trek (9090.01), which ranks third overall, have collected more points in 2025 than the Kazakh team.
Top point-haulers for XDS Astana are currently Christian Scaroni, with 841, and Simone Velasco, 840, both of whom came to XDS Astana through last year’s transfer window. Velasco’s big success came last Sunday when he finished fourth in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, while Scaroni won the second-level Tour des Alpes-Maritime and the Classic Var and finished on the podium of a number of minor races. It all adds up.
According to the Dutch Astana domestique Ide Schelling, “It is a complicated situation. Astana wants to send strong guys to smaller races to scoop up as many points as possible. It is a strategic game, and we are at the point now where not everyone can even get a start in those races.” Scaroni said that his training with the team was influenced by its fight to retain the UCI license. “We switched things up a bit last winter with my coach, putting more focus on one-day races,” he explained.
Another team doing well is the Norwegian Uno-X Mobility. While they’ve only won 3,730 points this year, they sit in 20th place, only 670 points behind XDS Astana. The team is loaded with talent, such as the 32-year-old Magnus Cort, who has won nine Grand Tour stages in his career and has already registered nine victories this year. Last year, UNO-X Mobility amassed nearly 9,000 points, primarily by Cort, 37-year-old sprinter Alexander Kristoff and fast man Søren Wærenskjold. The team will have to improve on that to go past the WorldTour teams Picnic Post NL and/or Cofidis, who sit 18th and 17th with 20,916.83 and 21,577.25 points, respectively.
Picnic Post NL may have some problems staying in the WorldTour. Its leader, French veteran Romain Bardet, will retire from the sport after the Critérium du Dauphiné, which means he won’t be riding in the Tour de France. At 34, Bardet has seen his best days slip behind him, but he is still a class act and an excellent rider. More to the point, he collected nearly 2,000 points for the team last year, a third of that total in the Giro. Team sports director Rudi Kemna will be hoping to see a similar effort from the Frenchman in his last appearance in a Grand Tour.
It’s not apparent who will replace Bardet. The most likely candidate is the 22-year-old Oscar Onley, who had a good year in 2024 and is having an even better season so far, though he will need to improve quickly to get the necessary results. However, such stalwarts as Max Poole, John Degenkolb, and Fabio Jakobsen are out injured, which means that another 22-year-old, the Czech Pavel Bittner, will be asked to step up. That’s a lot of pressure for a young rider.
The problem for Cofidis is time: many of its best riders are ageing. Jesús Herrada is 34, Ion Izagirre is 36, Emanuel Buchmann is 32 and Bryan Coquard is 33. This is not to say they cannot perform well, but it does put a lot of pressure on the young riders on the squad, such as the promising 24-year-old Milan Fretin.
Fretin will be leading the team in the Giro and hunting stage wins and podiums. He has already won two minor one-day races this year and finished runner-up in the green jersey competition of the Volta ao Algarve. The French team will have to have a lot of things go right for them this year to stay ahead of the hard-charging XDS Astana and Uno-X Mobility and remain at the top level.
