There are the Cadors, who will compete for the stage victory or precious seconds of bonus for the yellow jersey. There is also the crowd of teammates, carriers of without grade, subscribers to the anonymity of the peloton. And then there are these curious types, which will go to fight for places sometimes located beyond the top 10 of the stage, this classification which appears on TV with the names of the winners and the flags of each nationality, a few minutes after the arrival. What pushes a runner to fight for a 14th place? Without a doubt the UCI points. You will probably not hear much about France Télévisions. However, they make it possible to understand many race dynamics. We explain to you.
When you are a runner or a cycling runner, we fight to win a day’s events (for example Liège-Bastogne-Liège) or in stages (like the international female cyclist of the Ardèche). But we also contribute to a less visible classification, throughout the year: the UCI global ranking. It takes its name from the body that organizes it, the international cycling union, which oversees cycling worldwide. To establish this classification, the UCI distributes points to athletes according to their result at each race. But also according to a scale (article 2.10.008 of the UCI regulation) which makes it possible to enhance the most prestigious tests. A first place in the Tour de France reports 1,300 UCI points, against 40 for the winner of the Solidarnosc Cycling race and the Olympic champions.
UCI points are used to supply several rankings. The best known is the individual classification, which in particular makes it possible to determine who is world number 1 (before the start of the Tour de France 2025, it is Tadej Pogacar in men and a half vollering in women). This classification is calculated by adding the points obtained over a slippery year, or during the last 52 weeks.
There is also the classification of nations. He too is made over a slippery year and consists in adding the points of the best runners in each country. Currently, it is Belgium that holds the top of the pavement among men (thanks in particular to Remco Evenepoel, Wout Van Aert and Jasper Philipsen) while it is the Netherlands among women (thank you half vollering, therefore, but also Lorena Wiebes or Puck Pieterse).
Finally, there is the classification of teams. He is not calculated in slippery years but by season (from January to October), by adding the points obtained by the twenty best cyclists of each training. The team that has accumulated the greatest number of points is officially the best of each season. This has been the case with the UAE Team Emirates team of Tadej Pogacar the last two seasons. In 2022, Jonas Vingegaard’s Jumbo Visma was appointed best team.
All this could only be honorary. But the team classification has a capital impact: it allows since 2020 to determine who are the eighteen teams to have a World Tour license, a category which allows them to participate automatically in the most prestigious races of the season. This is an essential condition for attracting sponsors.
To guarantee a little stability to said sponsors, promotions and relegations are not done every season but every three years, taking into account the results obtained during the interval. The first promotions and relegations were made in the 2023 season, the following will be made at the start of the next one. This 2025 season is therefore essential for teams who would like to redo the cherry and save their skin at the highest level.
Among the teams playing in World Tour, four are on the hot seat. Before the start of the 2025 Tour, the Kazakhstani of XDS-Astana and the Dutch of Picnic Postnl occupy the 17th and 18th places of the cumulative classification over three years. All while standing in a pocket handkerchief since they displayed 23,707 and 23,632 points on the counter at the end of June. In 19th place, synonymous with relegation therefore, we find the French training Cofidis. But, with its 23,250 points, it is not far away and can still hope to save itself.
The case, on the other hand, seems much more complicated for the Bretons of Arkéa B & B Hotels, which swap at 20,528 points before the departure of the Grande Boucle. Especially since the Norwegians of Uno-X Mobility, who evolve at the lower level, type at the door of the World Tour with their 21,483 points at the end of June. Anyway, we should see jerseys of these different formations slip into the escapes or tear up with the sprint to harvest as many points as possible. And the turn distributes a lot.
The most prestigious race on the calendar, the Tour de France also the most providing points. As we have seen, reporting the yellow jersey in Paris reports 1,300 points. The green jersey or the polka dot jersey offer 210 points to their end holder. The same gratuity is offered to a stage winner on the large loop. But the following fourteen places also report points, from 150 for second place to 5 for the fifteenth. The penultimate, 14th place, reports 10 points. It may be a detail for you, but for some teams, that means a lot.
