'We will have to race aggressive' – Uno-X Mobility chasing points toward WorldTour promotion in Maryland Cycling Classic

The Maryland Cycling Classic, a UCI ProSeries one-day race, has higher stakes for the Uno-X Mobility team than perhaps any other squad on the start list.

The 300 points on the line for the winner would go a long way toward closing the gap to the top 18 in the UCI Team Rankings needed for the team to earn promotion to the WorldTour for the next three seasons.

Right now, Uno-X Mobility lie in 19th in the three-year rankings, 1,185 points behind Intermarché-Wanty, who are not participating in Maryland. Cofidis are only 26 points behind in 20th.

Further complicating the team's future is a proposed merger between Intermarché-Wanty and Lotto. The latter team are sitting firmly in the top 18 and in line for promotion to the WorldTour. A merger could pave the way for Uno-X Mobility to also be promoted, but there is still plenty of uncertainty for the Norwegian team.

Uno-X Mobility manager Gabriel Rasch told Cyclingnews that he expects a big fight between his team and Cofidis through the end of the season.

"I'm not sure what's going to happen with the Intermarché license, if that's getting bought by somebody else, or what's going to happen to it, or maybe we'll pass them as well," Rasch said. "We are also not too far behind them. So obviously, it's a tough fight for us now, for the points."

The team have been gaining momentum this season, and sit 10th in the 2025 UCI Team Rankings. They are the top-ranked ProTeam, which would earn them automatic invitations to the WorldTour races, but Rasch said promotion would be a better option.

"It's not the end of the world if we don't get the WorldTour, it's just nice to have three years [assured entry to WorldTour races] - we can plan really well," Rasch said.

"We have a lot of young guys who need to race a Grand Tour. And [if promoted], we don't have to race all the Grand Tours with big pressure and high ambitions. We can also race them to develop younger riders, so it gives us a little bit more calm to be WorldTour, and also it's more interesting for potential sponsors to commit.

"It's a long-term project anyway, and I think the top three amongst the ProTeams is also a really good spot to be at."

The team had hoped to get more out of the Bretagne Classic in Plouay, but after winning the Muur Classic Geraardsbergen, Jonas Abrahamsen could only manage 38th place behind winner Arnaud De Lie (Lotto). Worse, Biniam Girmay gave Intermarché 180 points with fifth place, and Cofidis' Alex Aranburu earned eight more points than Abrahamsen.

"Sometimes it doesn't always go the way you want," Rasch said, adding that the Maryland Cycling Classic and the two WorldTour races coming up, the GP de Québec and Montréal, will be very important. "Then the one-day races in Italy at the same time are also a lot of points. So every race now is important."

The team have added the Tour de Langkawi to their schedule to have more opportunities to get points.

"We weren't gonna race that to begin with. There's not a whole lot of points in Langkawi - it's the one-day races where the points lie, really. We [also] swapped Croatia with one-day races in Italy."

First, the team will be on the attack in Maryland in hopes of scoring a top result.

"We don't have the best sprinter here. The plan was to bring Magnus Cort as well, but he's not been super after the Tour de France, and we thought it was better to give him time to come back in full level.

"But yeah, tomorrow we will have to race aggressive. I think many other teams are also going to race aggressive, but we will try our best."