Picnic-PostNL men's and women's WorldTour licence initially limited to single year as full list of 2026-2028 WT teams released

The UCI has released the full list of allocations of the WorldTour 2026-2028 licences, but Picnic-PostNL men's and women's WT licences are initially limited to a single year, while neither Ceratizit - as expected - nor Roland are included.

In a press release, the UCI confirmed that a total of 14 UCI Women's WorldTour licences and 18 UCI WorldTour licences had been allocated for the next three seasons. It also confirmed the registration of teams for cycling's respective second divisions, the ProTeam leagues.

This is the first time that licences have been awarded simultaneously for both the men's and women's top tiers for a uniform three-year period.

However, regarding Picnic-PostNL, the UCI specifies that "The UCI Licence Commission has decided to limit the duration of the licence to one year and to set conditions related to the financial criterion that must be met in order to permit its extension to the 2027 and 2028 seasons."

There is no indication of what this criterion are or why the limit has been reduced to a single season. Cyclingnews understands, however, that the team is still in negotiations with one of its title sponsors and is confident of securing two further years' backing.

Whilst the absences of Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Ceratizit, both of which ceased activity in 2025, were expected, Cyclingnews has reached out to Roland about their absence from both the WorldTour and Proteam lists, but the team only said they had no comment for now. In October, it was reported that the team had not provided the full paperwork for an application for the top leagues.

The list of men's WorldTour teams also shows that NSN Cycling Team, formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech, has been admitted with a switch to the registered country from Israel to Switzerland. Despite protracted negotiations, the fusion between Intermarché - formerly known as Intermarché-Wanty - and the longstanding Belgian squad Lotto is recognised as going ahead, with the new team known as Lotto Intermarché.

In the list of women's WorldTour teams, it was expected that EF Education-Oatly would move up from their initial ProTeams status to the top tier in 2026.

Equally, the Norwegian squad Uno-X Mobility are confirmed, as expected as having earned its promotion to the WorldTour, while France's Cofidis team have had to drop out. Pinarello-Q36.5, formerly known as Q36.5, and Cofidis will both form part of the ProTeam series.

In total, according to the press release, a total of 14 UCI Women's WorldTeams, 18 UCI WorldTeams, 16 UCI ProTeams and seven UCI Women’s ProTeams have been registered for the 2026 season.

UCI Women's WorldTeams

• AG INSURANCE – SOUDAL TEAM (AGS – BEL)
• CANYON-SRAM ZONDACRYPTO (CSZ – GER)
• EF EDUCATION – OATLY (EFO - USA)
• FDJ UNITED – SUEZ (TFS – FRA)
• FENIX – PREMIER TECH (FPT – BEL)
• HUMAN POWERED HEALTH (HPH – USA)
• LIDL – TREK (LTK – GER)
• LIV – ALULA – JAYCO (LIV – AUS)
• MOVISTAR TEAM (MOV – ESP)
• TEAM PICNIC POSTNL (TPP – NED)
• TEAM SD WORX – PROTIME (SDW – NED)
• TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE (TVL – NED)
• UAE TEAM ADQ (UAD – UAE)
• UNO-X MOBILITY (UXM – NOR).

UCI Men's WorldTeams

• ALPECIN – PREMIER TECH (APC – BEL)
• BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS (TBV – BRN)
• DECATHLON CMA CGM TEAM (DCT – FRA)
• EF EDUCATION – EASYPOST (EFE – USA)
• GROUPAMA – FDJ UNITED (GFC – FRA)
• INEOS GRENADIERS (IGD – GBR)
• LIDL – TREK (LTK – GER)
• LOTTO INTERMARCHÉ (LOI – BEL)
• MOVISTAR TEAM (MOV – ESP)
• NSN CYCLING TEAM (NSN – SUI)
• RED BULL – BORA – HANSGROHE (RBH – GER)
• SOUDAL QUICK-STEP (SOQ – BEL)
• TEAM JAYCO ALULA (JAY – AUS)
• TEAM PICNINC POSTNL (TPP – NED)
• TEAM VISMA | LEASE A BIKE (TVL – NED)
• UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG (UAD – UAE)
• UNO-X MOBILITY (UXM – NOR)
• XDS ASTANA TEAM (XAT – KAZ).

UCI Men's ProTeams

• BARDIANI CSF (BCS – ITA)
• BURGOS – BURPELLET – BH (BBH – ESP)
• CAJA RURAL – SEGUROS RGA (CJR – ESP)
• COFIDIS (COF – FRA)
• EQUIPO KERN PHARMA (EKP – ESP)
• EUSKALTEL – EUSKADI (EUS – ESP)
• MBH BANK CSB TELECOM FORT (MBH – HUN)
• MODERN ADVENTURE PRO CYCLING (MAP – USA)
• PINARELLO – Q36.5 PRO CYCLING TEAM (Q36 – SUI)
• TEAM FLANDERS – BALOISE (TFB – BEL)
• TEAM NOVO NORDISK (TNN – USA)
• TEAM POLTI VISITMALTA (PTV – ITA)
• TOSCANA NIPPO RALI (TFT – ITA)
• TOTALENERGIES (TEN – FRA)
• TUDOR PRO CYCLING TEAM (TUD – SUI)
• UNIBET ROSE ROCKETS (RKT – FRA).

UCI Women's ProTeams

• COFIDIS WOMEN TEAM (CWT – FRA)
• LABORAL KUTXA – FUNDACION EUSKADI (LKF – ESP)
• LOTTO LADIES (LOL – BEL)
• MA PETITE ENTREPRISE (MPE – FRA)
• MAYENNE MONBANA MY PIE (MMM – FRA)
• ST MICHEL – PREFERENCE HOME – AUBER93 (AUB – FRA)
• VOLKERWESSELS CYCLING TEAM (VCT – NED).