Pogačar, UAE Team Emirates top UCI rankings, Astana losing fight against relegation

With commanding victories in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Strade Bianche and the Volta a Catalunya, Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates continue to lead the UCI rankings, while SD Worx-Protime and Lotte Kopecky are at the top of the women's rankings at the end of the Spring Classics.

Kopecky just surpassed last year's top-ranked rider, teammate Demi Vollering, thanks to her victories in Paris-Roubaix, Strade Bianche, Nokere Koerse and the UAE Tour. Her minor points from Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Flèche Wallonne together with points for being WorldTour leader pushed her into the top spot for the first time.

Pogačar has been the sport's number-one ranked rider since winning the Tour de France for the second time in July 2021 and he has not given up the top spot since.

Because the UCI Rankings are calculated on a 12-month rolling calendar, Pogačar has been able to hold his position by winning one-day Classics like Il Lombardia, the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège even when he finished second to Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France. Despite winning all three Grand Tours in 2023, Visma were not the top-ranked team, thanks in large part to Pogačar's Classics results.

In the race to remain in the WorldTour when the next round of relegation occurs at the end of the 2025 season, UAE Team Emirates are also ranked first ahead of Visma-Lease a Bike, Soudal-QuickStep and Ineos Grenadiers.

The same four teams were also at the top of the three-year rankings at the end of 2022, although Lidl-Trek have begun to threaten Ineos' position. With a strong run of results from Mads Pedersen and Mattias Skjelmose, they're ranked third for the year and fifth in the combined 2023-2024 rankings.

The two teams that were relegated from the WorldTour in 2022 for not making the top 18 teams in the UCI Team Rankings, Lotto-Dstny and Israel-Premier Tech, are in a much stronger position this time around. Lotto-Dstny are ranked ninth this year and in the 2023-2024 rankings, while Israel-Premier Tech moved two spots to 12th.

Lotto-Dstny gained most of their points in 2023 with Arnaud De Lie, but with the Belgian out of action with Lyme disease, Maxim Van Gils and Lennert van Eetvelt have filled in with top finishes in the Classics and the UAE Tour, respectively.

Stevie Williams bolstered Israel-Premier Tech's hopes of rejoining the WorldTour with wins in the Tour Down Under and Flèche Wallonne.

Other teams that had to scramble for points in 2022, Jayco-AlUla and EF Education-EasyPost, are also out of the worry zone with smart recruitment strategies and thanks to the UCI's revamp of the points system.

Teams that have to worry are Astana Qazaqstan, currently 20th in the 2023-2024 rankings, and Arkéa-B&B Hotels in 19th. The French team could easily climb into the top 18. After Luca Mozzato's podium in the Tour of Flanders and Koksijde Classic victory, they are ranked 11th this year and closing in on DSM-Firmenich-PostNL in the two-year rankings.

Astana, who have invested heavily in Mark Cavendish and his associated lead-out train, have not seen a profit from their strategy as of yet. They've fallen from 13th in the 2020-2022 rankings to 20th and are down to 21st in the rankings for 2024.

The women's WorldTour teams have just begun to accumulate points toward the next two-year cycle, which ended last season without any teams losing their place.