While the men’s peloton have been through a promotion/relegation cycle already, the women’s teams will face the first round of points-based changes at the end of the 2023 season.
The two-tier team system for women is still a relatively new concept, having been introduced by the UCI for the first time in 2020. That year, top-tier teams were set apart from the rest based on a series of financial and other requirements, including a guaranteed minimum salary for riders. In 2020, eight teams were granted WorldTour licences before a ninth team, Boels Dolmans (now SD Worx) joined in 2021.
For 2022, with WorldTeam status meaning guaranteed entry to the newly-restored Tour de France Femmes, the number of WorldTour teams jumped to fourteen – one less than the available 15 licences. Those licences were granted on a two-year basis and are set to expire at the end of 2023.
From the end of this year, licences will be rewarded on the basis of ranking (as long as those who can apply qualify for the other WorldTeam requirements) with the first 15 teams to qualify in the 2022-23 promotion/relegation cycle able to apply for a 2024-25 WorldTeam licence. The ranking is made up of the collective points of the best 8 riders of 2022 and the best 8 riders of 2023.
At the start of the season, current WorldTeam licence holders Human Powered Health, Uno-X and Israel Premier Tech Roland were in the relegation danger zone as they dropped below the first-15 ranked teams. Meanwhile, three Continental level teams, Ceratizit-WNT, AG Insurance Soudal-Quickstep, and LifePlus Wahoo, ranked higher, putting themselves in a position to gain WorldTeam status for 2024-25. Dutch development squad Parkhotel Valkenburg also feature but have not expressed a desire to gain WorldTeam status.
Since then, both Uno-X and Israel Premier Tech Roland have pulled ahead of LifePlus Wahoo and are currently ranked 15th and 16th respectively. However, Human Powered Health are currently in 19th place with 57 points to make up on Parkhotel Valkenburg, in 18th, and 329 points behind LifePlus Wahoo in 17th ,meaning they are likely facing relegation.
The two WorldTeams on the cusp will be heartened by the news that Liv Racing Teqfind and Jayco-AlUla are combining forces from 2024 onwards, making one additional WorldTour spot available. Elsewhere, there is uncertainty around current WorldTeam EF Education-TIBCO-SVB who, after the collapse of one of their primary sponsors, Silicon Valley Bank and with TIBCO not…
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