Five ways the UCI points system will change how the Tour de France is raced
Giro d'Italia provided pointers for 2026 WorldTour relegation race
Powless on his way to taking maximum points on the last climb
(Image credit: Getty Images)The Giro d'Italia gave the first clues as to how the UCI's overhaul of the World Rankings points scheme will impact WorldTour teams in the next three seasons as they battle for places in the top division in 2026.
Cyclingnews examined the latest rankings and the points gained during the Giro to see what the new World Rankings system has incentivised and to gauge what we can expect to see during the upcoming Tour de France and beyond.
The UCI revised the points system after criticisms that the points were too heavily weighted toward one-day races leading to a less than ideal situation for the World Rankings.
The biggest changes came at WorldTour level, most significantly at the Grand Tours like the Tour de France and the Monuments like Paris-Roubaix.
There is still a long way to go until the next WorldTour relegations in 2026, but the new system appears to be changing the shape of the sport in some subtle but important ways, and it could be changing the way the Tour de France is being raced.
Teams don't need a Grand Tour GC contender as badly
The current points system gave even more weight to overall Grand Tour winners - the Tour de France champion earns 1,300 points this year rather than 1,000, and the Giro and Vuelta a España winners earn 1,100 as opposed to 850. However, an expansion in points awarded for stage placings and minor classifications gives more opportunities for teams lacking an overall contender.
Until this season, only the top five riders on a Grand Tour stage were rewarded with points.
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Now, the points for stage results go down to the top 15 and the points for a stage winner is 210 points rather than 120. In comparison, the top 60 riders overall still earn points and each placing got a raise of 20-25%.
Additionally, the UCI changed how the team rankings are calculated, taking the points from the top 20 riders of a team rather than 10. This means that a team can go into a Grand Tour like the Tour de France without a general classification contender and still profit almost as much.
Take Trek-Segafredo during the Giro d'Italia, for example - they had a perfect balance, with Mads Pedersen as a solid sprinter who earned a stage win and four other top-five stage finishes. They had Toms Skujiņš going on the attack on six stages with four of the breakaways successful in netting him points. He didn't get a stage win but his second place on stage 12 and Alex Kirsch's second place in Rome were worth more than a stage victory last year.
The American team came out of the Giro moving up from eighth to seventh - making up some ground they'd lost during Tour de Romandie and 4 Jours de Dunkerque and getting a leg up on Lotto Dstny, who did not race the Giro.
Even Alpecin-Deceuninck, who were unremarkable in the second and third weeks, managed to gain a decent haul of points with Stefano Oldani in the points on six stages, and Kaden Groves' strong haul in the first week including a stage win.
Expect more aggressive racing in the Tour de France
The Giro d'Italia offered plenty of drama courtesy of breakaway riders, from Ben Healy's superhuman solo on stage 8 to Thibaut Pinot's heartbreak at Crans-Montana and Val di Zoldo, and Derek Gee's Energizer Bunny routine throughout the race.
The points system rewards panache, and for that, we can all be thankful.
Stacking the top 10 in ProSeries races is no longer as lucrative as winning a Grand Tour stage, and the system rewards aggressive riding more than before thanks to the deeper points pool.
Despite not having good GC prospects due to bad luck or budget, EF Education-EasyPost, Israel-Premier Tech and Trek-Segafredo scored more points in the Giro d'Italia than Team DSM with Andreas Leknessund in the top 10 overall. Why? They were sending riders up the road almost every single day.
According to an analysis by Raul Banqueri, Gee, the most combative rider, earned Israel-Premier Tech almost 700 more points for his results - six top 10's on stages, 22nd overall and second in both mountains and points classifications - than he would have with the previous points scheme.
That effort will help his team go a long way toward his team rejoining the WorldTour after being relegated to ProTeam status this year.
Formerly rock bottom of the WorldTour in the triennial rankings, Israel-Premier Tech are now looking quite strong in 15th without having a single GC contender.
The same goes for EF Education-EasyPost. Their top rider in GC was Alberto Bettiol in a very distant 48th after GC men Rigoberto Uran and Hugh Carthy abandoned. They only finished with four riders, but their breakaway riders earned huge profits.
The team claimed two stage wins thanks to Ben Healy in Fossombrone and Magnus Cort on stage 10. With points from Healy's second place in Bergamo, Cort's third at Tre Cime di Lavaredo, and Alex Cepeda's contentious third at Crans-Montana, they earned 1,020 points and 660 more than they would have in the previous system.
Expect more of the same during the Tour de France where the points on offer are higher than in the Giro.
Big-budget teams will still end up on top
The new system still favours the teams with the biggest budget and top stars. Ineos Grenadiers gained the most UCI points with 2,781 during the Giro d'Italia with Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates also gaining more than 2,000 points.
Bahrain Victorious, with Damiano Caruso's 840 points gained through his fourth place overall (600 points) and stage finishes, Jonathan Milan's stage win, points classification victory and other stage placings (a total of 925 points) contributed to the team rocketing five places up the 2023 team rankings to fourth.
Jayco-AlUla profited from Eddie Dunbar's top 10 on GC, earning the fifth-most points but it was still almost 700 fewer than UAE Team Emirates' haul.
There are even more points available at the Tour de France, which is in a points tier of its own.
Favourites Jumbo-Visma, UAE Team Emirates, Ineos Grenadiers and, below them, Bora-Hansgrohe and Bahrain Victorious will likely end up as they were at the end of the 2020-2022 rankings, but it will make the competition between the teams in fifth place and below more intense.
Teams can bounce back from bad luck in Grand Tours
Remco Evenepoel's abandon due to COVID-19 seriously impacted his team's prospects after a Classics campaign where he was their sole winner.
However, Soudal-Quickstep still managed to come out of the Giro d'Italia with 859 points - midway between Ineos at the top and Corratec-Selle Italia in 22nd. Finishing with only two riders, they scored only marginally less than Team DSM who had one rider in the top 10.
Compare this with last year, when Simon Yates abandoned the Giro d'Italia due to a knee injury and was also unable to race in the Tour de France. His absence in the GC severely hampered Jayco's points haul and they had to scramble desperately for points at the end of the season.
Teams can breathe a sigh of relief as the UCI's points overhaul which gives far more opportunities to gain points outside of the general classification.
Last season, stage results totaled just 37% of the total points pot, while this year that figure has risen to 66%. The GC, meanwhile, used to account for 55% of the total points awarded but is now only 29%.
Evenepoel's stage wins in the time trials counted for 80 more points than last season, and his fourth place at Gran Sasso d'Italia 68 more.
Through the stage results, Soudal-Quickstep earned more points than Movistar, who had Einer Rubio finish in 11th place overall and only dropped two spots in the team rankings, with Groupama-FDJ and Bahrain Victorious climbing over them.
Transfer season will be intense
Expanding the points to the top 20 means teams are freer to choose who they send to the Tour de France, and freer to launch riders up the road in hopes a breakaway will stick.
Teams will need stage hunters if they can't hire a good GC prospect. That will make the negotiations to hire riders like Gee or Toms Skujiņš who can go on the attack day after day far more lucrative. A second-tier sprinter or climber will also become more valuable for teams who can't score a Tour de France contender or who need a back-up plan.
And who deserves this kind of reward more than the swashbucklers of the Grand Tours who can make even the dullest day for the GC a thrill to watch?
One team that will need to start working on building a much deeper team is Astana Qazaqstan. Despite having Mark Cavendish and a stage win from the Giro, they eked out a paltry 680 points in the Giro - fewer than Eolo Kometa who are nowhere in the UCI team rankings.
As we saw with Israel-Premier Tech, a good recruitment strategy is key. Gee, Marco Frigo, and Matthew Riccitello - all points scorers in the Giro- were new to the team this season.
Astana are up to 22nd from 24th, but they are more than two thousand points behind 18th place in the rankings, so Alexander Vinokourov really needs to do some wheeling and dealing in July.
Laura Weislo is a Cyclingnews veteran of 20 years. Having joined in 2006, Laura extensively covered the Operacion Puerto doping scandal, the years-long conflict between the UCI and the Tour de France organisers ASO over the creation of the WorldTour, and the downfall of Lance Armstrong and his lifetime ban for doping. As Managing Editor, Laura coordinates coverage for North American events and global news.
