While Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates continue to dominate the UCI World Rankings for individual riders and teams, respectively, the period of the Vuelta a España has caused some significant shifts in the teams below them.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, the fifth-best team in the last three-year WorldTour relegation rankings (2020-2022) suffered last year and ended the season ranked only 10th. Before the Vuelta, they were in 7th but, thanks to Primož Roglič’s overall victory they leapfrogged ahead of Ineos Grenadiers, Soudal-Quickstep and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale into 4th.
One of the sport’s richest teams had few worries about being relegated from the WorldTour, however, nor did Visma-Lease a Bike, who continue to be the second-best team in the world, a startling 13,163 points behind Pogačar’s team.
Lidl-Trek continued their ascent toward super-team status, climbing into third place in the 2024 rankings, helped by Mattias Skjelmose’s fifth place overall in the Vuelta a España as well as top results from Thibau Nys at Tour of Poland and Jonathan Milan and Mads Pedersen in the Deutschland Tour and Milan in the Renewi Tour.
The gap between Lidl-Trek and Visma-Lease a Bike is a mere fraction of UAE’s massive lead, with 2,914 points separating the two teams. However, Lidl-Trek’s rise is still an impressive improvement on last year’s 6th place.
The differences between the teams in fourth through sixth are much tighter – a margin of one or two victories.
Soudal-Quickstep slipped one spot into fourth despite Mikel Landa taking eighth overall, while Ineos Grenadiers continued to slide down the rankings into sixth, losing three places.
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Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale even slipped one position into seventh despite Ben O’Connor’s breakthrough Grand Tour podium due to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s strong rise.
The difference between Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Decathlon is now 1,014 points compared to the 440-point difference before the Vuelta. But one must not discount Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s major improvement on their 18th place in the 2023 rankings.
Alpecin-Deceuninck trail in eighth while Lotto Dstny continue to post strong results as the best ProTeam in ninth, with both teams holding steady on their 2023 rankings.
Groupama-FDJ and Israel-Premier Tech are neck and neck in 10th and 11th, with EF Education-EasyPost a bit further behind in 12th.
Movistar and Jayco-AlUla both climbed two positions into 12th and 14th but perhaps the most important improvement came from DSM-Firmenich-PostNL, who moved up four spots into 15th to climb further away from the relegation zone.
Uno-X Mobility are the third ProTeam in the top 18 of the 2024 rankings, just 15 points ahead of Bahrain Victorious.
However, because of their strong 2023 season, Bahrain Victorious won’t have to worry as much about the three-year relegation as Cofidis, who were 15th last season and 20th so far this year.
Arkéa-B&B Hotels have even more to be concerned about after dropping two places into 19th for the year, the same rank they ended 2023 with.
In the combined 2023-2024 points, Cofidis have a 1,723-point lead over Arkéa in 18th and, DSM have a 725-point buffer on Cofidis, too. It’s a long way for Arkéa to go to remain in the WorldTour.
It’s an even longer route for Astana Qazaqstan, 21st for this year after ending last season in 20th. They’re currently a massive 4,168 points behind Cofidis in the two-year totals.
Uno-X Mobility have high ambitions to join the WorldTour but are currently far behind Lotto Dstny and Israel-Premier Tech, who are almost certain to rejoin the top tier of pro cycling in 2026.
When it comes to the automatic invitations to the Grand Tours for 2025, Lotto Dstny and Israel-Premier Tech should easily keep that honour as the top two ProTeams of 2024.
The transfer season isn’t over yet, and smart signings can make or break a team. Astana have picked up some solid riders in Sergio Higuita, Diego Ulissi and Wout Poels – it just remains to be seen if they can pull the team out of the relegation zone.
