The UCI has announced the registration of 31 women's teams to the professional ranks for the 2014 road season. It also ranked the teams based on the individual UCI points of the top four athletes from each team, and points from the 2013 UCI Road World Championship team time trial to determine automatic invitations for the class 1 events.
The top 20 teams in this ranking earn the right to participate in the UCI Women's Road World Cup, while the top 10 are automatically invited to class 1 (1.1, 2.1) events as do the top five national teams.
The Rabo Liv team of world champion Marianne Vos topped the rankings, with Emma Johansson's Orica-AIS in second. Boels Dolmans, led by Briton Lizzy Armitstead was third, while American squad Specialized-Lululemon was fourth over hitec Products.
The top national teams were the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, the USA and Australia.
The total number of women's teams was down three, from 34 in 2013 to 31. Nine teams went away - most notably the Belgian Sengers Ladies Team, Bourgogne-Pro Dialog from France. The Cyclelive Plus - Zannata and Team Futurumshop.nl merged to form Futurumshop.nl - Zannata, and the Exergy women's team stepped back to the non-UCI ranks.
Among the new teams to the UCI peloton is the UnitedHealthcare women's team, already victorious in the first UCI race of the season, the Tour Femenino de San Luis, won by American Alison Powers, and the Bigla Cycling Team from Switzerland.
2014 UCI Women's 'fictitious' rankings
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