A post-Tour look at the team standings to see who is up and who is down.
Two changes at the top. First the UAE team is still in the lead but they’ve pulled out a big lead after “only” having less than two thousand points on RedBull going into the Tour, now they’re over five thousand clear and with Pogačar racing the Vuelta likely to pull further ahead. The other movement is Lidl-Trek overtaking XDS-Astana, the German team enjoyed a successful team while the Kazakh squad found it hard to get a look in.
The grey line on the chart represents the border between 18th and 19th place. Notionally this is the relegation point at the end of the 2026-2027-2028 cycle. It’s far away, and also conditional on there being 18 teams in the World Tour. Pinarello-Q36.5 already look like a competitive World Tour team and signing the likes of Mauro Schmid only bolsters this. Movistar and Lotto-Intermarché might be where they’re expected to be but it’s not a comfortable place.
Thanks to a good Tour EF went into the Tour below the grey line, now they’re well above it with Richard Carapaz scoring over 1,300 points. Cofidis are just above the line but Tudor are close, the Swiss team had a discreet Tour de France but have signed Arnaud De Lie who ought to score big for them next year, the team need this. Marc Hirschi for example only has 308 points this season.
A poor Tour for Groupama-FDJ, around 300 points of which two thirds came from Clément Russo’s stealthy top-10s. They will be worried about relegation, especially as they’re still highly reliant on Romain Grégoire. He’s extended his contract with the team which helps but injury or illness could be ruinous for the team. Valentin Madouas is leaving and you can understand why, he’s only got 120 points this season when he’s been second in the Olympics and the Ronde alike and notionally one of the leaders; the same for David Gaudu with 98 points this season with talk of a breakdown in relations and the team wanting to unload him but he’s got a valid and lucrative contract so in no hurry to leave. Having seen Stefan Küng leave and now Madouas there ought to be some budget for some scorers. House sprinter Paul Penhoët is leaving too.
Picnic-PostNL are in a catastrophic position. Only one win this season is poor but it’s the absence from podiums, placings and other results that is proving so damaging. They’re really missing Max Poole, their stage racing talent, but only three riders in Pavel Bittner, Frits Biesterbos and Bjorn Koerdt have a points score in triple digits, with Bittner the top scorer on 580 points. They’re 4,339 short of Cofidis, to avoid relegation they’re going to need to score at a rate like Soudal-Quickstep just to get back on terms. Fabio Jakobsen could be leaving the team in the coming days
One year rankings
Everything else being equal* the best two ProTeams this season get automatic invites to the biggest races for next year, so Pinarello-Q36.5 and Cofidis right now but with Tudor jostling for this prize so watch for this during the rest of the season.
To be eligible for a grand tour a ProTeam has to be inside the Top-30 at the end of the season so plenty of familiar names including Bardiani which has climbed up. But the rule means the likes of Euskaltel-Euskadi and Modern Adventure Cycling are out of the picture now so new Euskaltel signing Mikel Landa may not have the romantic farewell at the Vuelta.
As written before the top-30 rule is based of the rankings at the end of the year which will include teams like Kern Pharma and TotalEnergies and only the first has said it’s stopping and the second is probably going to stop too but no announcement yet so if they won’t exist next year it doesn’t make sense to include them.
* an open question with an uncertain future for several teams, see July’s Race for Survival post
Generically, these rankings seem to feel more like how a team’s marquee riders are getting on vs actual team performance. Maybe it just shows your support riders and staff have to be stars themselves.
Picnic has had a brutal year. I wonder if Visma felt obligated to throw Jakobsen a bone after 2020.
Groupama-FDJ do not seem to be in a happy place. They must be wishing that they did not let Lenny Martinez go.
It seems it will be a real dog fight for those around the 18th spot.
It wasn’t quite as simple as sitting down and having three boxes marked Martinez, Gaudu and Madouas and working which ones to keep and which one to bin… but this has turned out poorly, letting Martinez go and extending Gaudu and Madouas on big contracts. Madouas is off to Cofidis and if he doesn’t win much as a strong rider he still ought to score points but maybe a team like Soudal could have been better for him.