The UCInote World Tour is a season long cycling competition, taking part over 28 races, including Tour de France, and is the top league of cycling. 18 teams are part of the competition and obliged to appear in every race, while other teams from the "league" below, called UCI Professional Continental teams, are invited on a race-by-race basis. National teams from the hosting country can receive invites as well.
The 38 races are the following, ranked by how points are distributed, with the location and the points given to the winnernote shown in parenthesis. Points are given to the individual riders, while the team rankings are decided as the sum of the points every rider on a team has accumulated. The same calculation method applies to nation ranking. In 2017, the points system was set up to match the UCI World Ranking, and it looks as follows. In the early stages of the 2017 season, Tour of Qatar folded and in August of 2017, the world team time trial championships were removed from the World Tour.
- Tour de France (France, 1000 points, 120 points for a stage win)
- Grand Tours (850 points, 100 points for a stage win)
- Giro d'Italia (Italy)
- Vuelta a España (Spain)
- Monuments and Major Classics (500 points; Monuments in italics)
- Milan–San Remo (Italy)
- Gent–Wevelgem (Belgium)
- Ronde van Vlaanderen (Belgium)
- Paris–Roubaix (France)
- Amstel Gold Race (Netherlands)
- Liège–Bastogne–Liège (Belgium)
- GP de Québec (Canada)
- GP de Montréal (Canada)
- Giro di Lombardia (Italy)
- Major stage races (500 points, 60 points for a stage win)
- Tour Down Under (Australia)
- Paris–Nice (France)
- Tirreno–Adriatico (Italy)
- Tour de Romandie (Switzerland)
- Criterium du Dauphiné (France)
- Tour de Suisse (Switzerland)
- Minor classics (400 points)
- E3 Harelbeke (Belgium)
- La Flèche Wallone (Belgium)
- Clásica de San Sebastián (Spain)
- EuroEyes Cyclassics (Germany)
- Bretagne Classic Ouest-France (France)
- Minor stage races (400 points, 50 points for a stage win)
- Volta a Catalunya (Spain)
- Vuelta a Pais Vasco (Spain)
- Tour de Pologne (Poland)
- BinckBank Tour (Belgium / Netherlands)
- New One-Day Races (300 points, WT teams not obliged to participate)
- Great Ocean Road Race (Australia)
- Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Belgium)
- Strade Bianche (Italy)
- Dwars door Vlaanderen (Belgium)
- Eschborn–Frankfurt (Germany)
- Classic Brugge–De Panne (Belgium)
- Stage Races (300 points, 40 points for a stage win, WT teams not obliged to participate)
- UAE Tour (United Arab Emirates)
- Tour of Guangxi (China)
- Abu Dhabi Tour (UAE, 2015–2018; merged with the Dubai Tour to create the current UAE Tour)
- Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey (2017–2019)
- London–Surrey Classic (UK, 2017–2019)
- Tour of Beijing (China, 2011–2014)
- Tour of California (USA, 2017–2019)
- Tour of Qatar – Had been announced as part of the 2017 World Tour, but canceled due to a lack of sponsorship and never raced again.
- World Team Time Trial Championships (Varies, 2012–2016)
- Tour Down Under: Daryl Impey (MTS, South Africa)
- Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race:
- UAE Tour: Alejandro Valverde (MOV, Spain)
- Omloop Het Nieuwsblad:
- Strade Bianche:
- Paris-Nice:
- Tirreno-Adriatico:
- Milano-San Remo:
- Three Days of Bruges-De Panne:
- E3 BinckBank Classic note :
- Volta a Catalunya:
- Gent-Wevelgem:
- Dwars door Vlaanderen:
- Ronde Van Vlaanderen:
- Vuelta a Pais Vasco:
- Paris-Roubaix:
- Presidental Tour of Turkey:
- Amstel Gold Race:
- Fleche Wallone:
- Liege-Bastonge-Liege:
- Eschborn-Frankfurt:
- Tour de Romandie:
- Tour of California:
- Giro d'Italia:
- Criterium du Dauphine:
- Tour de Suisse:
- Tour De France:
- Clasica San Sebastian:
- RideLondon-Surrey
- Tour de Pologne:
- BinckBank Tour:
- EuroEyes Cyclassics:
- Bretagne Classic Ouest-France:
- GP de Quebec:
- Vuelta a España:
- GP de Montreal:
- Giro di Lombardia:
- Tour of Guangxi:
- Leading rider (Updated after Tour Down Under): Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott, South Africa, 580 points).
- Leading team ():
- Winning rider (Updated after Vuelta a España): Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott, Great Britain, 3072 points).
- Winning team (Updated after Vuelta a España): Quick-Step Floors (Belgium, 13385.97 points)note
The World Tour was started under the name UCI Pro Tour, where it was designed to follow the format of the Formula One Series. The Pro Tour got off to a rather shaky start, with a conflict between the grand tour organizers and UCI, leading to the grand tours and several monuments not being on the rankings in 2008. In 2009, the differences got settled, and the World Tour was created. While the Pro Tour continued to exist through 2010, every race on the Pro Tour was part of the World Tour and the Pro Tour ceased to exist, with the teams still being called ProTeams.
In 2015, the World Tour had run into a new set of problems. While doping cases in cycling aren't as present or a big as previously, there is a problem with getting enough teams on the World Tour. Officially, only 10 teams have a World Tour license for 2015, while it was a perfectly reasonable assumption that for remaining 7 teams from the 2014, having their license renewed will be a formality. In the case of five of the teams that was indeed the case. Astana had a lot of doping problems, with two riders from the World Tour team getting busted for doping, and another three from their feeder team. It was resolved by Astana shutting down their feeder team, and they were granted a license. Team Europcar were denied due to budget issues. Issues with gaining sponsorships is a general problem in professional cycling, exemplified with IAM Cycling and Tinkoff folding after the 2016 season. Changes were made before the 2017 season with the objective of reducing the number of World Tour teams to 17 for the 2017 and 2018 seasons, and 16 teams going forward from 2019, as well as allowing the teams to have WT licenses for a longer period.
An unfortunate consequence of the ambiguously written UCI rules, was that it was unclear who would get the last license for the 2017 season, as two new applicants came to the World Tour, Bahrain-Merida and Bora-Hansgrohe. The new teams quickly signed riders with more points than the existing Dimension Data team, who finished 18th in the recently finished competition, three teams were in contention for two spots on the World Tour. The problem with the ambiguously written rule was that it was unclear whether the license should be determined by the points accumulated by the team first, then the riders (this would lead to Dimension Data being safe, and Bora-Hansgrohe becoming the only new WT tean); or it should be based on the performance of the riders (and the new teams taking the licenses). This was rendered moot by UCI, who ended up allowing 18 teams. Ironically, the reduction to 17 teams almost happened, as Lampre-Merida's change in sponsorship to the Chinese company TJ Sport fell through, and the team was saved by sponsors from the United Arab Emirates.
More changes were made prior to the 2017 season, as UCI wants to merge the WT ranking with their World Ranking. The UCI World Ranking is a ranking of World and Continental Tour races, as well as the world championships, continental championships and Olympic Games during olympic years.
Another change for the 2017 season is the addition of ten new races, in which the World Tour teams are not obliged to participate. It was originally eleven new races, but Tour of Qatar folded. The race organizers must sent out invitations to every World Tour team. In the new races, continental level (third tier) teams are allowed to participate. The teams did not change for the 2018 season.
A list of teams in the 2023 season is given below, along with the nationality of the team, which is the country in which the team has its license.
- AG2R Citroën Team (France)
- Alpecin–Deceuninck (Belgium)
- Arkéa–Samsic (France)
- Astana Qazaqstan Team (Kazakhstan)
- Bora–Hansgrohe (Germany)
- Cofidis (France)
- EF Education–EasyPost (USA)
- Groupama–FDJ (France)
- Ineos Grenadiers (United Kingdom)
- Intermarché–Circus–Wanty (France)
- Lidl–Trek (USA)
- Movistar Team (Spain)
- Soudal Quick-Step (Belgium)
- Team Bahrain Victoious (Bahrain)
- Team DSM–Firmenich (Netherlands)
- Team Jayco–AlUla (Australia)
- Team Jumbo–Visma (Netherlands)
- UAE Team Emirates (United Arab Emriates)
There are certain requirements for a World Tour team roster. The teams must have between 24 and 30 riders under contract, unless a rider retiresnote gets busted (and subsequently fired) for doping or dies. A team is allowed to sign 28 riders of their own wish but to fill the last two places the last two riders must be neo-pros (riders on their first professional contract, first or second seasons), and all neo-pros must be signed for at least two years. During the season, any team are allowed to sign up to three stagiaires (trainees), who are usually young riders from Continental or club level teams testing themselves in a professional environment.
