It only feels like 5 minutes since we were last here thinking about this, but it’s time for teams to worry about promotion and relegation from the Women’s WorldTour again. The good news is, once 2025 is over, it will be a little bit longer until the next time as the women’s peloton will finally match up to the men’s WorldTour schedule of the same 3-year cycle. That should allow for more security for the teams that make it and a bit of uncertainty for any who don’t that were expecting to make it.
What are the Women’s WorldTour promotion/relegation rules?
The 15 teams that will be included in the 2026 Women’s WorldTour will be decided on the combination of a team’s 2024 & 2025 season UCI points. But that’s not quite all, to secure a Women’s WorldTeam licence, teams must meet four non-sporting criteria: administrative, ethical, organisational, and financial. They can be found in this hefty UCI document but importantly, these rules are designed to ensure professional management, rider welfare, and fairness across all teams. Here’s how the criteria work:
Administrative Requirements
Teams need to submit key documents like contracts, insurance, and bank guarantees on time and in an organised, professional manner. Meeting deadlines is a critical part of this process.
Financial Standards
Teams are assessed on their financial health and stability. This involves an audit by UCI-appointed experts to ensure they have the resources to operate reliably, including paying their riders and staff.
Ethical Obligations
All teams must uphold the integrity of the sport by following UCI regulations. This includes anti-doping rules, good sportsmanship, and maintaining a positive image for cycling. Teams must also meet their legal responsibilities, such as paying taxes and adhering to employment laws while acting transparently and in good faith.
Organisational Expectations
The organisation of teams is rigorously assessed, focusing on how they prepare riders, manage health care, and oversee competition. Key rules include:
- Training and Coaching:
Every rider must have a written training plan that outlines preparation, recovery, and race schedules. Teams can either employ full-time coaches for small groups of riders or have a performance manager to oversee all training. Data from external coaches must be shared with the team to ensure consistency. - Sports Directors:
Each team must have qualified sports directors who manage riders during races and help plan their competition schedules. These directors may also take on coaching roles if they are certified for both. - Medical Care:
Teams are required to employ a chief medical officer responsible for all health-related matters, ensuring compliance with UCI medical regulations. Riders must have a designated doctor, and all medical records are kept strictly confidential. Internal rules must clearly define how medical care is managed. - Racing Limits:
To protect rider welfare, no rider can compete in more than 75 race days per season, excluding national team events. Sports directors are responsible for ensuring this limit is respected, even if riders wish to take on additional races. - Communication:
Teams must use effective communication systems to coordinate training, racing, and medical care. This often involves digital platforms that all staff and riders can access. - Licensing of Key Staff:
Sports directors, doctors, and performance managers must hold the correct UCI licences and certifications for their roles. Doctors must also prove their qualifications in sports medicine and provide a “certificate of good standing” from their professional governing body.
These rules are not just administrative hoops to jump through; they ensure that teams are well-run and riders are properly cared for. By combining clear standards with rigorous audits, the UCI aims to protect both the integrity of the sport and the well-being of its participants.
What happened last time?
At one point towards the end of the 2023 season, it looked like a couple of WorldTour teams were going to struggle to retain their status. Late on though, the battle was rendered largely moot due to the 2024 merger of Liv Racing TeqFind and Team Jayco-AlUla and another dissolution of a long-running team.
Liv Racing TeqFind had looked set to be relegated (finishing 17th in the rankings) but managed to live on through the Aussie team, who shared the use of Liv bikes as well, to sort of carry on. Team Jayco-AlUla weren’t massively better off until that moment as well, as they sat in the 15th spot. EF Education–TIBCO–SVB announced their closure in August 2023 as well, with the team stuck in an ownership tussle that saw the creation of EF-Oatly-Cannondale in 2024 at the Continental level. In the end, 15 teams applied for the 15 available spots.
Photo Credit: Raymond KerckhoffsWhat does the relegation situation look like at the moment?
After the 2024 season, there are a good chunk of teams that are almost certainly safe. The majorly successful teams like SD Worx, Lidl-Trek, Canyon SRAM, dsm-firmenich PostNL (Picnic PostNL in 2025), UAE Team ADQ, Visma | Lease a Bike, FDJ-Suez won’t have anything to worry about at all. Ceratizit-WNT should feel safe in their position but have had plenty of turnover in their team this off-season. Their 2024 season should be enough for them to not have to look over their shoulder too much. Liv-AlUla-Jayco should also be fine, especially with their early season Aussie Nationals + Tour Down Under expected bundle of points to get things off to a good start.
Movistar should be fine but are the first team in the standings to maybe just have to really make sure they have a decent enough year. They’ve got an advantage of around 1500 points which should work out fine. It’s a similar situation for Fenix-Deceuninck as well. They should be more than fine but there’s enough daylight to be truly comfortable.
The battle really begins at EF-Oatly-Cannondale (EF Education-Oatly in 2025) with the points advantage down to only 600-800, depending on if you consider VolkerWessels relevant in all this, or Uno-X Mobility the first actual WWT challenger. The other teams in the low 4000s are Human Powered Health and AG Insurance-Soudal. Both teams have made strong signings and whilst things could be tight, they should be ok on the proviso that they don’t suffer key injuries. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio for the latter should have a good comeback season after missing big chunks of 2024 through injury.
VolkerWessels are a wildcard in all this. They’ve not expressed an interest in joining the Women’s WorldTour but have scored enough points last season to be in contention. If they change their mind and wish to contest with an application, they have about 7-8 months to decide. They may be happy enough not being in the WWT but taking up the competition for the 2 best ProTeam spots which will see them get wildcard invites to all of the Women’s WorldTour calendar in 2026 anyway.
Uno-X Mobility and Roland are the two Women’s WorldTour teams with the worst record from 2024. Neither are out of it yet but Roland does have a 400 point deficit on Uno-X Mobility to close up first. We know Roland will cash in with some more Central American races in 2025 but have a proper job to do to retain their WWT status for the 3 years after 2025. Uno-X Mobility will be hoping Anniina Ahtosalo can win more races in 2025 to help secure their spot. They could take the 15th and final spot and have an itchy year always on the bubble.
Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi and Cofidis are the two other challengers. Laboral Kutxa talked up WWT ambitions in 2024 and had a solid year for a team that’s been making huge improvements from where they were before. They’re not too far away but it will take something special for them to close up on and overtake the likes of Uno-X Mobility for the final spot. Cofidis announced in their 2025 team news that they were hinting at WWT ambitions themselves for the first time. Again, they’re just about in contention but it’s going to take a huge year from where they are. They may be happy with just taking one of the top-2 ProTeam wildcard spots.
Which teams might be promoted/relegated at the end of the 2025 season?
- Movistar (WWT)
- Fenix-Deceuninck (WWT)
- EF-Oatly-Cannondale (Continental looking to get promoted)
- Human Powered Health (WWT)
- AG Insurance-Soudal (WWT)
- Uno-X Mobility (WWT)
- Roland (WWT)
- Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi (Continental looking to get promoted)
- Cofidis (Continental looking to get promoted)
- VolkerWessels (no stated interest currently in promotion though)
