With the Giro d’Italia about to approach, a quick look at the team standings. There’s the three year promotion and relegation cycle far away on the horizon but also the one year rankings and based on these right now Bardiani-CSF could be starting their final Giro on Friday.
The table shows the team rankings for 2026. As a reminuder it’s based on the combined haul of the 20 best points scorers on each team. There’s more detail on the system here and the points tables here. Blue bars are WorldTeams, red are ProTeams from cycling’s second tier.
Tadej Pogačar’s just collected 800 points from the Tour de Romandie partly thanks to four stage wins (60 each time) and the GC (500 points), as much as winning a Monument. Isaac del Toro is their second best scorer and can you guess the third? It’s an anagram of “forensic bony toe”. The team is on 27 wins already.
Jayco are doing well, largely thanks to a 2,037 haul from Mauro Schmid as without him they’d be among the likes of Movistar and NSN.
Ineos’s top scorer is Egan Bernal. Dorian Godon is next, building on his strengths as a finisseur to now win regularly in World Tour races. The team is second to UAE when it comes to wins with 19 but clearly not second on the rankings.
Cofidis are doing well, in large part thanks to Ion Izagirre who has announced his retirement but isn’t slowing down yet.
Last week Lotto-Intermarché were in 18th place but have the biggest move this week up to 14th thanks to Georg Zimmerman’s win in Eschborn-Frankfurt and Arnaud De Lie back to winning ways in the Famenne Ardenne Classic. Lotto always seem to struggle during the core classics season on their home roads, recent results confirm this.
Groupama-FDJ have been languishing but Roman Grégoire’s performances in the “Ardennes” have been salvatory, without him they’d be sandwiched between Caja Rural and Burgos. This lack of results has seen mild public criticism of Valentin Madouas for sitting at the back of the peloton and hoping to sail past when others crack, only few crack these days. L’Equipe reports they’re shopping for a GC contender and a sprinte, who is on the market and who suits?
Problems are piling up for EF. Richard Carapaz is out of the Giro, following on from long term injuries for Neilson Powless and Harry Sweeney, plus Ben Healy missed the classics with illness. Remember they have launched a public appeal to find a replacement title sponsor and the reduced visibility won’t help.
Picnic-PostNL now have their first win thanks to Casper Van Uden in the Tour of Türkiye, they’ve been the last World Tour team without a win. Nor have they been close very often, they’re 30th in the rankings. There are rules to say only the top-30 teams are eligible for a wildcard invite to the grand tours but they’re safe for invites as a World Tour squad, but it illustrates the depth of their slump. Remember they have a one year World Tour licence, they’re on watch to stabilise their finances but their plight is not easy for them and their sponsors. It’s very early the promotion and relegation cycle but need to turn things around to convince the UCI and fans alike that they belong with the best.
The top-30 rule does apply to Bardiani CSF 7 Saber, only they’re off the chart in 34th place, with 764 points. So as things stand they’re ineligible for next year’s Giro. The Giro will be difficult for them as Visma and UAE will leave few crumbs for the other teams, let alone them. They’ll need to score elsewhere. Rivals SolutionTech Nippo Rali have proved more adept here, signing riders who have scored in their national and continental championships like Carlos Samudio or house sprinter Dušan Rajović who has 10 UCI wins this season, one more than Pogačar.
With Picnic getting a win, they and Groupama-FDJ, Movistar, Soudal Quickstep and Jayco are the squads left without a World Tour level win this year.
There’s no news on a replacement sponsor for Total Energies. Whether it’s Total, Visma, EF or others, the deadline is not 31 December. Instead it’s already getting late. Teams need to know their budget for next year today in order to recruit and retain riders, as plenty of deals are being done in the market now.
For all the movement up and down the rankings tables at the moment, will all these teams continue to exist in six month’s time?
It’s an anagram of “forensic bony toe”
From ChatGPT:
“That one’s sneaky, but it resolves cleanly: forensic bony toe → Ben O’Connor, Froome
So the anagram actually contains two cyclists: Ben O’Connor and Chris Froome.
If you were expecting a single “famous cyclist,” the standout name in there is Froome—but the full anagram uses both names perfectly.
Benoit Cosnefroy. Sad (sorry GRV) how people tend to use AI with the corresponding environmental impact for tasks which it’s really terrible at, not even the level of any college school teenager.
But that’s how people have been convinced to eat things which aren’t food, dress in low quality plastic (ah, Bobet what a great man!), call friends some Facebook accounts and so on 😛
Yes, Cosnefroy and who had him in mind as their third rider?
He was only picked up in a late season deal. Decathlon did not renew his contract and he agreed to join Picnic-PostNL last year but that fell through, presumably because of the finances and situation, so UAE got him late in the season. He was meant to score wins for them in smaller races to help them break 100 victories in a season but has done other roles, including leading out Pogačar on La Redoute.
Always a talent. Note that he didn’t win much, he ain’t win at all this year, really, but placed a lot on the Ardennes and at the beginning of the season. Then, it’s UAE having one of “those” years, so while everybody was scoring around in 2025 now it’s very different. I think that if we compare the proportion of UAE to the 2nd team with other seasons, well, this year for now it looks very close. And they still have Pogi winning big! As you say, most lucky aspect was having a rider able to do that launching work which is paramount and normally on Narváez or Wellens.
That’s a really insightful observation!———And it’s understandable why you might feel that way———But the reality is a bit more nuanced.
You mean there’s a “y” somewhere, hidden between Ben O’Connor and Chris Froome?
^______^
For some perspective, out of curiosity I also asked ch**GPT and I kid you not, it gave the answer as Cadel Evans
From Clause:
====================
Now I have the full roster. Let me work through the anagram carefully.
“forensic bony toe” — letters: F, O, R, E, N, S, I, C, B, O, N, Y, T, O, E
That’s 15 letters: B, C, E, E, F, I, N, N, O, O, O, R, S, T, Y
Looking at the roster and checking names:
Benoît Cosnefroy — B, E, N, O, I, T, C, O, S, N, E, F, R, O, Y = B, C, E, E, F, I, N, N, O, O, O, R, S, T, Y ✅
That’s a perfect match! All 15 letters align exactly.
The answer is Benoît Cosnefroy! 🎯
The French puncheur and Classics specialist who joined UAE Team Emirates-XRG for the 2026 season. Every letter in “forensic bony toe” rearranges perfectly to spell his name.
====================
Although it did go around the houses a bit *creating* the answer. This was the tail end of it’s first response though.
*Even* teenagers eventually grow up – for good or ill – with training and teachers
(check Seixas 😀 )
…only lots of unpaid teachers in AI’s case, but worry not!, I’m sure the gratitude from Musk, Altman, Zuckie will forever flow upon us.
(Oh yes, Claude is the “good one”, the “ethical” thing from the Amodei, whose Italian heritage grants we’re entering the New Renaissance… good news never comes alone -___-)
Typically, current interface uses old or mediocre versions for first answers as they’re cheaper, then jump to better models when asked to delve deeper into a question or correct.
However, imagine that AI companies lobbying achieved a crazy normative preventing disclosure of information about how energy & water consuming European data centres are, or will be. Which gives you some idea about how out of scale those figures are expected to be – normally you can allow disclosure of potentially damaging information, just spread some marketing all over it, and people won’t understand or won’t care anyway. No, in this case companies asked for (and got) a specific exception to keep the public away from the figures. New Renaissance, indeed.
Gemini told me it was Filippo Baroncini. It was suitably contrite when the lack of a “y” was pointed out, and got it right on the second go. But it had been so confident initially.
Everybody: Please stop using AI
If fdj are looking for a gc leader – Roglič is out of contract next year and would take a guaranteed solo leader role at the Tour.
I’d worry about motivation, he’s looking a bit detached at the moment even if he needs results to get a new contract. But interesting to see what he does and whether he can get some results, he still score a lot of valuable UCI points.
True as for points, but I’d give Decomble time to develop and meanwhile perhaps try to unlock the very long contract Rondel’s got at Tudor (can’t be on a huge wage and maybe the boy starts to feel he can deserve more). Baudin is in his last year at EF according to PCS and I’d give it a try. Always thinking about how valuable is the national aspect for FDJ. Lecerf (French-speaking Belgian) is also on his last year at QS. Maybe Bisiaux feels closed up at Decathlon now, he was sort of having an uncomfortable moment with Riccitello when they were beat by Jegat in some minor French race.
We’ve said it a lot, but it’s absolutely shocking how every bit of potential young talent is soon totally locked up by big teams. Then some of those riders end up struggling to have some limelight or, on the contrary, look sort of burnt, and one wonders if they’d have had a better time elsewhere. Winning and gaining less, of course. Carlos Rodríguez, Ayuso himself, Van Gils, Zingle, Tulett, F. Wright, Vermaerke, Valter, Vansevenant, Arensman, Hayter… (not necessarily GC men I mean in this case). Of course their careers are far from finished and they’ve years ahead to grow further up, or maybe they’re just achieving their true potential as gregari or stage hunters, yet to me there’s a sense of “what if”. I’m also aware that in this time and age you’d better be in the right team to enjoy the best sport science and technical support, so it’s never an easy choice.
Your second paragraph brings up a fantastic point, and it’s something we’ve seen over and over again. You wonder if a financially healthier Picnic or Cofidis would have given better opportunities for the people on your list. On the other hand, you have the case of Jorgenson, who took a huge step up when he left Movistar, so going to a big team is not without its possible rewards (aside from a higher salary, which is not a small thing).
Typing the “FDJ looking for a sprinter” paragraph, I was thinking De Lie would be the perfect fit as he gets a team that suits his style, he doesn’t have to win the Ronde / E3 etc but gather from HLN newspaper that GFDJ have lost out in bidding to Tudor. Although “is De Lie a sprinter” is a blog post in itself, he is quick but better suited to avoiding the crash risk so he can win elsewhere.
Sad to see how EF have been devastated by early season health problems. Plus, I just saw their Giro change kit and I don’t think they’ll be getting any positive attention from that either.
Unfortunately, the Assos EF design looks to me like a case of trying too hard. The limited response has been more generous than I expected. I haven’t scoured the internet, but of the four or five sites I check daily, only cyclingnews even ran a muted piece about it. It didn’t help that they noted the reason Carapaz is not racing is because he is still recovering from saddle sore surgery. I hope that saddle sore developed before he was in Assos, or that is another blow to the myth, I mean reputation of the Assos bib insert. To be fair, and speaking from experience, I have had to have a saddle sore surgically removed, and I do trace it back to the year I wore only Rapha. Each undercarriage to his own.
With Bardiani circling the drain, the UCI needs to seriously consider which of the Top 30 rule and the Minimum One Home Team rule will take priority if it becomes impossible for the Giro d’Italia to comply with both.
True, but Bardiani is down also as Solution Tech and Polti are up.
Yet, yeah, not the sort of teams you can rely on
^___^
Only four Pro-teams will fail to get into the top 30. And two of those teams are going to be Novo Nordisk, Flanders-Balouse. There is also Modern Adventure and MBH Bank, both of whom are likely going to finish below Bardiani.
Italian teams also get to score a lot of points from the Autumn hilly classics. They score much less heavily when the Flemish classics are being raced. Spanish teams get a lot of early season points from all the races run in Spain during February and March. While InnerRing is right that there are grounds for concern, it is too early to be in panic mode.
Have I read that right, that Soudal-Quick Step haven’t had a World Tour win yet this year?! Yikes, how times change. I know it isn’t a surprise given the extent that other teams dominate these days, but its still a surprise! For about the first 4 years of you doing these reviews they were more or less permanently on top of the win lists?!
Yes, just six wins this season and none in the World Tour. For comparison a decade ago they had 23 wins at the same point in the year, including four WT- rated ones.
A decade ago what’s now Picnic was one of the few teams winning GTs, with multiple podia, and taking home Monuments and other Classics, too. They had sport science on their side, and economy, too, with real estate investments to create solid value associated with the team. Training, management, all was very top and modern, until some athletes began feeling uneasy with the rigid and controlling approach, then sporadic connection with Aderlass surfaced, Dumoulin went away only to get even sadder… and here we are.
Oh boy. What a way to put it. Everything changes but all stays the same… Until it doesn’t.
I hope Quickstep turn it around. It’s too late for Picnic. And if FdJ do turn to Roglic (as above), then I’d say that’s them on their way out too. Faded star to fading team is always a signifier of a deep set malaise, isn’t it?
Perhaps it’s my Anglo-centric perspective, but these comments make me surprised that Ineos are below Soudal-Quick Step so far this year. 19 wins, including 12 at WT level, suggest quantity and quality, yet they’re only slightly above Cofidis (6 wins, 1 at WT level). Is it the lack of GC-focused points this year? Looking at PCS, looks like their top riders just simply aren’t mopping up many points despite Godon’s visibility this year.
Winning stages just doesn’t score many points. Teams get much more from regular top-10s on GC or in one-day classics.
I see that Picnic have agreed a contract extension for 2027 with Degenkolb and have a new sponsor (Raisin). Does that indicate some hope for the future? Despite that the Giro squad is seriously uninspiring
The new sponsor should help but how much? Apparently PostNL is keen to back the team for the coming years… but that’s also just the kind of message that management need to dissipate too.
If I’m not mistaken, Inrng didn’t have to use a fudged scale to show UAE’s points along with the rest of the teams. Moral victory for the rest of cycling?
Once or twice I’ve cropped the chart in order to better see the battle among teams for relegation, but more often each time the chart is re-opened it needs to be expanded along the x-axis to account for UAE’s increasing points haul.