American ProTeam to ride first Monument

The general classification picture at the 2026 UAE Tour has been reshaped again before a single kilometre has been raced. Giulio Ciccone will not start the race after falling ill, according to reports by Ciro Scognamiglio, becoming the latest high-profile GC contender forced to withdraw in the build...

Weve started the first year of a three year promotion and relegation cycle. As a result the urgency and desperation is gone. Keep an eye on two things instead: financial health of the World Tour teams and the jostling teams in the second division.Scoring recapRiders get points from the results in UCI races as set out here for the men and here for the women. The team scores are the combined total of the best 20 riders for mens teams and the best 10 riders for women. Teams are then ranked on their combined scores for the 2026, 2027 and 2028 seasons. The top-18 teams are eligible for the mens World Tour, the top-15 for the womens Wold Tour.These rankings are updated here every Tuesday by the UCI, other sites keep a record too but the UCI is the official one and includes points deducted by commissaires that dont always get picked up by results; but even the UCI tables can have mistakes.New 2026-2028 cycleHuman nature means deadlines matter more the closer they get. Anecdotally theres more urgency among teams with management acutely aware of the need to score now. Gone are the days when team managers didnt know which year of the relegation cycle they were in, now theyre more likely to know precisely how many points a rider will get for sixth place in a 1.Pro race. Calendar choices and race schedules are being made with points in mind for plenty of teams.The relegation race is realIf Q36.5 and Tudor Pro Cycling look and feel like World Tour outfits then which two teams currently sitting in the World Tour risk will lose their places to the them? We can only speculate but Groupama-FDJ and Picnic-PostNL fared worst last year, look weak today and have concerns about whether theyll exist come 2029 but feel free to cite other teams. Plenty of teams just dont have to worry about relegation but almost half of the 18 ought to.But who survives?Indeed three years is a long way out and unlike other promotion and relegation contests in different sports pro cycling has an existential one where who knows which teams will still be around in 2029? Last years Race for Survival post needs an update as a whole separate post.Survival and relegation are intertwined, teams struggling with double-digit wage growth cant hire big scorers.Why all this?The World Tour promotion-relegation system gets blamed but surely it has to exist in some form? Some team managers howl that unlike other sports they dont have ticket revenue and get little in TV rights income but they do have one big implicit asset: guaranteed entry to the Tour de France. Like it or not, the French race counts for vast majority of a teams media exposure and by extension the rationale for team sponsorship. Square this and a team becomes a durable, if brittle, proposition.Given the sports structure wont change overnight, some sort of ranking system seems fair where stronger teams can displace weaker ones. Doing this over three seasons allows for an annus horribilis and for teams to recruit their way out of trouble. Ranking teams based on a lot of their riders still means some riders can be tasked with helper roles and adds a depth to the count rather than basing it of a handful of top scorers which would reward the winners even more.All this is done with rules and handled by the UCI. Its much better than subjectively letting race organisers award invites behind closed doors; or worse corrupted by pay-to-play where teams and their backers pay organisers (we see this where some become event sponsors, so never mind making additional revenues, it reveals how teams will actually pay at the margin to take part).Soft landingsRelegated teams are not cast into the wilderness either, they should qualify for automatic invites to the major races.A means to an endBeing a top team is not the point it itself, the right to compete in the best events is just the start, its the ability to deliver here that really counts. The story of Arka-B&B Hotels is illustrative, it targetted a lot of smaller races to score big during the 2020-2022 cycle and won promotion. Only on moving up it only once in the World Tour and faced with the rising costs and shrinking results the team folded. Teams need a plan and matching resources to thrive in the World Tour.Reform it?The system cant be perfect and is not set in stone but there are few obvious tweaks. Teams travelling far to score points in races where many of their peers are absent is gaming the system; but then again its also a boost for races on the Asian calendar that can hope to attract more teams. Teams having to score points in small races can have an opportunity cost as it tires riders to chase points; but this only happens when a team is not winning points in the big races.Instead calls for reform are likely to be more radical, like a franchise system where teams face no jeopardy but thats a whole other blog post. You can see the gains in stability but the risks where teams go stale but hog their spot and cant be replaced by new entrants.Womens World TourLast year VolkerWessels were declined promotion. This means 14 teams in the Womens World Tour when the rules allow 15. It suggests theres not much of a cliff edge and a team outside of the World Tour can find advantages, securing invites to races it wants while declining to take part in events where its sponsors have little interest and ensuring the roster isnt overstretched by a long calendar.The womens relegation race is less intense, if no team wants to move up then relegation is less of a worry. For now though as there are plans for more womens teams to launch next year and this could change the equilibrium. This could mark more competitive tension compared to the men but again it also depends on the financial viability of all teams.The immediate action is over the one year rankingsTeams outside of the World Tour need to finish in the top-3 in order to get an automatic invite to the World Tour races. Tudor and Q36.5 ought to qualify here but can Cofidis join them? Theyre racing against TotalEnergies and Unibet Rose Rockets for this spot with the possibility of Caja Rural, Kern Pharma or Burgos Burgpellet BH scoring if they get a metaphorical tailwind.Theres also secondary contest here where to be eligible for a grand tour invite a team must be inside the top-30, this is a real pressure for the likes of Burgos and Bardiani.ConclusionA stressful system for team managers but given the structure of the sport is not going to change overnight then the promotion and relegation rules as we know them are here to stay if some dont like them, nobody has a better idea.It feels a settled a thing now but three years out from the next cut means the contest is a background story this year. Keep an eye on the team rankings from time to time but this blog wont be doing weekly updates. For now Jayco are off to a great start while Picnic-PostNL are struggling but its mid-February.Its just as worth watching the financial health of teams to see if theyll exist come 2029 but finances correlate with scores. Teams struggling to deliver results will find it hard to tap sponsors for more. Its this that can change the equilibrium and come 2029 it might be budget and viability that weighs on promotion and relegation more than UCI points but given no team should plan on rivals imploding theyre all chasing points.The post The 2026 Points Race first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Camsmajaco comes out of merger between Fensham and Tofauti

Starting the new season at the Tour of Oman, Diego Ulissi is racing far from home but speaking with the perspective of a rider who has grown up alongside a rapidly changing peloton. Now one of the most experienced figures in the bunch, the Italian has seen training methods, career paths, and expecta...

Wow, people sure put a lot of thought into this contest!The spirit of GRVL is not only with us today but has always been with us, working in its mysterious ways. Was it with Fausto Coppi? It was. Was it with the badger? Of course. Was it with Andy Hampsten on the Gavia? So it is said by the wise men of old. Indeed the spirit of GRVL is without beginning and without end, the alpha and omega of the bike world if you will.You say that you have been searching for the spirit of GRVL, pilgrim, and no doubt you have, but I think you have not been entirely honest with us, your faithful followers, about what you have seen. Would someone who does not KNOW the spirit of GRVL take the care to obscure its holy name by removing the vowels? Would a mere seeker be concerned about the sacrilege involved in spelling out its full (and holy) name? I think not. You have seen things that you have not revealed to us. Like the name of G-d, you dare not desecrate that which moves amongst the tiny rocks.Tell us and teach us oh holy one. What lives in the trails behind the mall? Or perhaps it was during that New England summer vacation about which you said conspicuously little? As it is, we remain in the dark, wandering. We laugh at your jokes, knowing not their true meaning. We pretend to understand your tales, but in fact we are confused. Like us you claim to stick to the roads, but we sense that something in you has been changed like you have seen something, and you dare not speak its name. Dont abandon us now. Teach us, and soon, holy one, lest we jesus-carry our bikes into the Gates of Hell.It is true. Mine eyes have seen the Glory. The wool hath been pulled forth from mine eyes, and instead wrapped around mine handlebar grips:[Photo: Dan Leto]No, really, that was Grants bike and the grips were basically this:[Photo: Rivendell]Anyway, as a reader points out, sometimes the Spirit of Gravel isnt even about bikes at all:Wait. Gravel guitar? Wouldnt that just be a bass?You know, same idea as a six-string guitar, just longer with thicker strings?Also, does that make a locking tuner the equivalent of a clutch derailleur?I dont know, Im not a musician.Meanwhile, still no gravel here, but yesterday something amazing happened:I had forgotten what temperatures above freezing felt like, and it was glorious. Five-finger gloves instead of mittens! The ability to drink water from a water bottle! Not freezing solid during descents! Sure, the streets were wet and slushy, but with fenders who cares?If you ask me, its fenders that make year-round riding possible, not motors. But nobody asked me. Instead everyone went out and bought bikes with motors on them, so now Nikes making e-bikes for your feet:Ive already mentioned these, and I was hoping if I ignored them theyd just go away, but apparently not:If you have a body, youre an athlete, said Mike Yonker, who heads up the team developingProject Amplify Nikes new bionic sneaker.Accordingly, the Project Amplify footwear system is aimed at a broad audience. Amplify is designed for that everyday athlete to give them the energy they need to go further, to go faster, with greater levels of confidence, said Yonker. Its like an e-bike for your feet.Sure. And if you have a scalpel youre a surgeon. Try giving yourself a vasectomy and see how that works out for you.Nike is serious about turning non-athletes into athletes, too, because theyre testing these things at NPR:Nike said it plans to launch Project Amplify commercially in 2028. The system, tested in prototype form by NPR at the companys headquarters, consists of fairly standard-looking sneakers with a carbon fiber plate running through the soles. These sneakers are attached at the back to close-fitting, 3D-printed titanium leg shells that cinch to the calves. The battery-powered contraptions, containing complex motors, sensors and circuitry, weigh a couple of pounds and look like something out ofTerminatororRoboCop.Testing athletic gear at NPR is like testing sex toys at a conventlots of confusion, embarrassment, and inexperience, but no shortage of pent-up demand. Plus, both are ideal use cases for batteries.But yes, its about time your gait was determined by an algorithm:What its doing is learning how your ankles are moving, how long your steps are, taking the algorithms and customizing them for you, said Alison Sheets-Singer, Project Amplifys lead scientist. So that when it turns on, it feels natural and smooth.A phone app powers the footwear system on and off and can be used to toggle between various speed settings in walk and run mode. When activated, the leg shells pick up the heels and propel the feet purposefully forward.Hey, algorithms have worked great for social media, which is why everybody hates each other now. Just wait until they apply the same concept to our sneakers and were all fleeing in terror because of the latest trending news story:[They took Savannah Guthries mom and now theyre coming for MEEE!]But there is a precedent for all this, and itsold-timey Rollerblades?Semmelhack points to ice skates made of bone from the 1600s, 19th-century in-line roller skates and an iconoclastic pair of crescent-shaped, metal rocking-shoes patented in the early 20th century.Yep, its a thing, I looked it up:Behold, the Pennyfarthing of Rollerblades![Via here.]But it will take more than just the e-sneakers themselves to make walking obsolete. You cant reinvent society without also reinventing language. Just ask George Orwell! Fortunately, Nike and their contractors have that covered, and thanks to a new invention of theirs called personal range anxiety youll never wear regular shoes again:Weve described a phenomenon called personal range anxiety, where people are now making decisions about which activities they opt in and out of based on asking themselves, Will I be comfortable? Will I be in pain? Will I be able to keep up with my friends and family? said Dephy co-founder and CEO Luke Mooney. And so were helping them restore that confidence.I remember when personal range anxiety used to be called laziness.And you know who we have to thank for all this?Thats right, its mountain bikers!E-bikes have changed the landscape of mountain biking for people that maybe didnt have the ability or were getting older and still wanted to participate, said Mark Oleson, a former Adidas executive who has worked on many innovation projects in the athletic shoe sector and who currently heads up the womens volleyball footwear and apparel company Avoli. Theres a huge opportunity where companies are asking, How do we get someone into a sport or into a recreational activity that they normally wouldnt have the ability to do?They really are the worst.Id like to think people will resist electric shoes, but unfortunately I suspect everyone will be too tired after fighting the Alt-Valve Revolution:Holy crap, I counted 11 new types of valves!Which will reign supreme? Will it be the Muc-Off Big Bore?When I heard Big Bore the first thing I thought of was this guy:Now thats boring.In any case, its no wonder the humble bicycle tire valve has become a key battleground, because not only has the shift from inner tubes to flat prevention semen increased the demands upon it, but it also represents another place to put a battery for no reason:Ah, whatever, I give up. Just let me know when its over and everyones decided on a new valve standard. Hopefully its compatible with 32-inch wheels.

World champion appears to publish all his training zones, and the numbers are jaw-dropping

An eventful CTT meeting saw new chair Tim Smith voted in, and numerous resignations

When a team reshapes the competitive order of the peloton, success alone is never the full story. In cycling, dominance inevitably drags history back into view. That is the context in which analyst Thijs Zonneveld believes scrutiny of UAE Team Emirates - XRG is both logical and unavoidable. Not beca...