UCI rejects One Cycling project inclusion in WorldTour
Future of new scheme in question as men's and women's WorldTour races decided through 2028

The UCI announced that its Management Committee has approved the men's and women's WorldTour races through the end of the next three-year cycle in 2028 on Thursday, with the committee unanimously voting to exclude the One Cycling project from the calendar.
"While welcoming the fact that road cycling is attracting new investors, the UCI Management Committee nevertheless unanimously decided, following the PCC's vote in this direction, not to respond to the request, as it stands, to include the OneCycling project in the UCI Women's WorldTour and UCI WorldTour calendars," the UCI announcement read.
"The project, which had been developed by certain teams and organisers, in collaboration with a sports investment fund, was deemed incompatible with the governance and regulatory framework of the UCI as well as lacking sporting coherence.
"However, the UCI wishes, as do all cycling’s stakeholders, to continue discussions with the representatives of this project in order to collaborate on the internationalisation of the UCI Women's WorldTour and UCI WorldTour calendars and the economic development of our sport."
The One Cycling project has been spearheaded by Visma-Lease a Bike manager Richard Plugge as a way to bring external investors in to rebuild cycling's business model, hoping to bring more money to teams through various revenue streams.
The decision of the UCI Management Committee is a serious blow to the project, which had found support from Flanders Classics, the organisers of numerous WorldTour races including the Tour of Flanders.
The Saudi Arabian SURJ Sports Investment fund, controlled by the huge Saudi PIF sovereign wealth fund, was expected to finance One Cycling via a €250 million investment and provide €1 million a year for the next three years to the men's teams and €250,000 to the women's.
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Other than omitting One Cycling from the calendar, the UCI WorldTour and Women's WorldTour calendars remain the same, except for one new race for the women: Dwars door Vlaanderen, which steps up from the Pro Series.
The women's Giro d'Italia date will move to late May to take place just after the men's Giro, while the Classic Brugge-De Panne changes its name to "The Great Sprint Classic".
Changes to UCI rules
- Formalised 23 teams in men's Grand Tours
- Top three ProTeams must be invited to all WorldTour stage races, up from top two
- Women's WorldTour start money increased 20%
- Number of rooms for teams at Women's WorldTour increased
- Points structure for women's team rankings changed to match men's
- Under-23 WorldTour or ProTeam riders not eligible to compete in UCI Nations Cup
- New Junior individual UCI rankings from 2026
New tech rules
- Maximum height of bicycle rims for mass start road events set at 65mm as of 1 January 2026.
- Minimum overall width of handlebars (outside to outside) for mass start road and cyclocross events will be set at 400mm, 350mm for track. Inner width of 320mm between brake levers from 2027.
- Maximum internal fork width on road frames set to 115 mm at the front and 145 mm at the rear (measured along the entire length of the front fork and rear triangle).
- Introduction of a helmet approval protocol from 1 January 2027
2026 UCI Women’s WorldTour calendar
- TBC: Santos Tour Down Under (Australia)
- TBC: Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race – Women (Australia)
- 5-8 February: UAE Tour Women (United Arab Emirates)
- 28 February: Omloop Nieuwsblad (Belgium)
- 7 March: Strade Bianche Donne (Italy)
- 15 March: Trofeo Alfredo Binda - Comune di Cittiglio (Italy)
- 21 March: Milano-Sanremo Donne (Italy)
- 26 March: The Great Sprint Classic (Belgium) (FKA Brugge-De Panne)
- 29 March: Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (Belgium)
- 1 April: Dwars door Vlaanderen - Across Flanders (Belgium) formerly ProSeries
- 5 April: Tour of Flanders (Belgium)
- 11 April: Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift (France)
- 19 April: Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition (Netherlands)
- 22 April: La Flèche Wallonne Féminine (Belgium)
- 26 April: Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes (Belgium)
- 3-10 May: Vuelta España Femenina by Carrefour.es (Spain)
- 15-17 May: Itzulia Women (Spain)
- 21-24 May: Vuelta a Burgos Feminas (Spain)
- 30 May-7 June: Giro d'Italia Women (Italy) *new date
- 11-14 June: Tour de Suisse Women (Switzerland)
- 20 June: Copenhagen Sprint (Denmark)
- 1-9 August: Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (France)
- 20-23 August: Lloyds Tour of Britain Women (Great Britain) *new date
- 29 August: Classic Lorient Agglomération - CERATIZIT (France)
- 4-6 September: Tour de Romandie Féminin (Switzerland)
- 9-13 September: Simac Ladies Tour of Holland (Netherlands)
- 13-15 October: Tour of Chongming Island (China)
- 18 October: Tour of Guangxi (China).
Men's 2026 WorldTour calendar
- TBC: Santos Tour Down Under (Australia)
- TBC: Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (Australia)
- 16-22 February: UAE Tour (United Arab Emirates)
- 28 February: Omloop Nieuwsblad (Belgium)
- 7 March: Strade Bianche (Italy)
- 8-15 March: Paris-Nice (France)
- 9-15 March: Tirreno-Adriatico (Italy)
- 21 March: Milano-Sanremo (Italy)
- 23-29 March: Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (Spain)
- 25 March: The Great Sprint Classic (Belgium)
- 27 March: E3 Saxo Classic (Belgium)
- 29 March: Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields (Belgium)
- 1 April: Dwars door Vlaanderen – À travers la Flandre (Belgium)
- 5 April: Tour of Flanders (Belgium)
- 6-11 April: Itzulia Basque Country (Spain)
- 12 April: Paris-Roubaix (France)
- 19 April: Amstel Gold Race (Netherlands)
- 22 April: La Flèche Wallonne (Belgium)
- 26 April: Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Belgium)
- 28 April-3 May: Tour de Romandie (Switzerland)
- 1 May: Eschborn-Frankfurt (Germany)
- 9-31 May: Giro d'Italia (Italy)
- 7-14 June: Critérium du Dauphiné (France)
- 14-21 June: Tour de Suisse (Switzerland)
- 21 June: Copenhagen Sprint (Denmark)
- 4-26 July: Tour de France (France)
- 1 August: Donostia San Sebastián Klasikoa (Spain)
- 3-9 August: Tour de Pologne (Poland)
- 16 August: ADAC Cyclassics (Germany)
- 19-23 August: Renewi Tour (Belgium)
- 22 August-13 September: La Vuelta Ciclista a España (Spain)
- 30 August: Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France (France)
- 11 September: Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec (Canada)
- 13 September: Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal (Canada)
- 10 October: Il Lombardia (Italy)
- 13-18 October: Tour of Guangxi (China)

Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.
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