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Alpecin-Deceuninck and Arkea-Samsic have been promoted and Israel-Premier Tech and Lotto Soudal relegated from the WorldTour, the UCI announced today. The change was expected by the 2020-2022 team rankings that form the sporting criteria.
The UCI confirmed that Israel-Premier Tech and Lotto-Soudal will be awarded ProTeam licences for the 2023 season, dispelling any rumours that the WorldTour would be expanded and fears that Israel-Premier Tech owner Sylvan Adams would pull out of the sport.
The WorldTour teams have been awarded three-year licences but have to register each year. Points scored over the next three seasons, will form the sporting criteria when licences are next awarded for 2026.
The UCI also awarded 15 places in the Women’s WorldTour, with the recently renamed Fenix-Deceuninck (Plantur-Pura) team awarded the final place ahead of AG Insurance-NXTG and Ceratizit-WNT teams.
The UCI also announced that the B&B Hotels team had been refused registration, confirming its demise after the team’s management failed to secure the sponsorship to fund new signings, including Mark Cavendish.
Israel-Premier Tech and Lotto Soudal had failed to score enough ranking points to finish in the top 18 teams in the three-year ranking used to decide the sporting criteria for the 2023 WorldTour.
Israel-Premier Tech team owner Sylvan Adams had threatened to take legal action if his team was relegated, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘force majeure’, and there were rumours that the UCI could expand the WorldTour to 20 teams. The UCI quickly quashed the idea.
As the top ProTeam of 2022, Lotto Soudal (Lotto Dstny in 2023) have secured automatic invitations to the WorldTour races and the Grand Tours alongside TotalEnergies. Israel-Premier Tech, however, will have to secure a wild card invitations to the Grand Tours, including the Tour de France.
The UCI specified that Team DSM’s second and third years of their WorldTour licence are conditional on the provision of additional documents related to the financial requirements.
The new ProTeams include Bolton Equities Black Spoke from New Zealand, the Swiss-based Q36.5 Pro Cycling team managed by Doug Ryder that has Vincenzo Nibali as an advisor, the Italian Corratec team and Fabian Cancellara’s Tudor team.
B&B Hotels, Gazprom-Rusvelo and Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli are no longer ProTeams in 2023. Gianni Savio hopes to save the Androni team and register as a Continental team.
2023 UCI WorldTour teams
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