Bora-Hansgrohe in the top 10: The best men's cycling teams with the most Instagram followers
Thomas Huber
· 06.01.2024
The UCI world team rankings were adjusted for last season. Instead of the points of the best ten riders of a team, the points of the best 20 riders have been added together for the ranking since the start of 2023. The top 20 teams in the 2023 UCI world rankings are made up of the 18 World Tour teams, supplemented by two Pro Teams, cycling's second division.
20th Israel-Premier Tech - 124,000 followers
Team Israel-Premier Tech is one of two Pro Teams and is ranked 16th in the UCI world rankings, meaning that a promotion back to the World Tour is within reach, as Michael Woods, among others, has had a strong year. He won a Tour de France stage and finished sixth overall in the Tour of Catalonia.
19th Cofidis - 126,000 followers
The French team Cofidis has just a few more followers than Israel-Premier Tech. Although the team slipped down in the UCI world rankings compared to the previous year, the team performed strongly at the Tour de France: Victor Lafay and Ion Izagirre celebrated stage wins and Guillaume Martin finished in the top 10 overall.
18th Groupama-FDJ - 151,000 followers
In the UCI world rankings Groupama-FDJ The French team had a solid year, winning the Giro d'Italia mountain jersey with Thibaut Pinot and the Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France one-day race with Valentin Madouas. In the overall rankings of the Grand Tours, Thibaut Pinot finished fifth in the Giro and eleventh in the Tour de France on his farewell tour. Tour de France captain David Gaudu finished ninth in the Tour of France.
17th Arkea-B&B Hotels - 160,000 followers
Arkea-Samsic (2024 Arkea-B&B Hotels) did not have a good year in 2023, did not celebrate a victory at World Tour level and is in serious relegation trouble. Warren Barguil's 22nd place in the overall standings of the Tour de France was the highest of feelings, and Cristian Rodriguez was also unable to finish higher than 13th in the Vuelta. At the Gree Tour of Guangxi, Louis Barre finished sixth overall and achieved a top ten result.
16th Bahrain-Victorious - 201,000 followers
Similar to Groupama-FDJ also performs Bahrain-Victorious The team from Bahrain is clearly below the UCI ranking in terms of the number of Instagram followers. The team led by Matej Mohoric is in sixth place in the world rankings, but just over 200,000 Instagram followers are only enough for 16th place. The team from Bahrain has a wide range of riders who were able to deliver in 2023. Pello Bilbao finished sixth overall in the Tour de France, Damiano Caruso even came fourth in the overall Giro classification. Matej Mohoric also won the overall classification of the Tour of Poland and, like his team-mates Wout Poels and Pello Bilbao, took a stage win at the Tour de France.
15th Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale - 226,000 followers
AG2R-Citroen Team has recently stagnated in its development and has landed a new main sponsor: from this season, the team will be Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale hot. In the past season, the Austrian Felix Gall who won a Tour de France stage and finished eighth overall. Ben O'Connor also showed his skills time and again, finishing third overall in the Criterium du Dauphine.
14th Lotto-Dstny - 228,000 followers
Pro Team Lotto-Dstny is well on its way back to the top cycling league. The main man responsible for this is Top talent Arnaud de Liewho won the one-day Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec and performed strongly in other classics such as Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. A UCI world ranking of 9th is outstanding for the still second-class team.
13th Alpecin-Deceuninck - 279,000 followers
Although Alpecin-Deceuninck has superstars like Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel The team is also only in eighth place in the world rankings despite numerous victories by its stars. This is despite Mathieu van der Poel winning both the Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo monuments. Jasper Philipsen also won four Tour de France stages and the Brugge-De Panne classic.
12th team dsm-firmenich PostNL - 310,000 followers
Team dsm-firmenich (now dsm-firmenich PostNL) had a mixed year in 2023, finishing in 17th place in the world rankings. The Dutch team is also likely to be affected by the departures of Marius Mayrhofer and Andreas Leknessund hurt. The German won the World Tour race Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, the Norwegian finished eighth overall at the Giro d'Italia - and thus scored plenty of UCI points. So next year, other riders will have to achieve success.
11th Intermarche-Wanty - 317,000 followers
At World Tour level, the Belgian team Intermarche-Wanty (2023 still Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) did not have a good year. The biggest successes were Hugo Page's second place in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, Louis Meintjes' seventh place in the Criterium du Dauphine and Rui Costa's Vuelta a Espana stage win. After a strong previous year, the team is trending downwards. In the Instagram ranking, the team just missed out on the top 10.
10th team Jayco-AlUla - 343,000 followers
Above all, captain Simon Yates ensured that the Jayco-AlUla team need not worry about relegation. The Brit finished fourth overall in the Tour de France, second in the Santos Tour Down Under and fifth in the cycling monument Il Lombardia. With Filippo Zana, the Australian cycling team has a promising talent in the starting blocks, who won the Tour of Slovenia and a stage at the Giro d'Italia.
9th Astana Qazaqstan Team - 389,000 followers
Astana Qazaqstan Team has made it into the top ten in the Instagram ranking, but in the UCI world rankings the team is in 20th place, making it the worst World Tour team. In the past season, only Cycling legend Mark Cavendish for a World Tour victory, who won the final Giro d'Italia stage in Rome. The riders around Alexey Lutsenko will have to do much better next year if they want to remain in the top cycling league.
8th UAE Team Emirates - 458,000 followers
Team UAE Team Emirates was the best of the season last year according to the UCI world rankings. Not only superstar Tadej Pogacar was responsible for this, finishing second in the Tour de France and also winning Il Lombardia and the Tour of Flanders. Adam Yates also finished on the podium at the Tour de France and won the Tour de Romandie. Tim Wellens and Jay Vine also won the Renewi Tour and the Santos Tour Down Under.
7th Bora-Hansgrohe - 488,000 followers
In the UCI world rankings, Bora-Hansgrohe made it into the top 10, and with 488,000 followers it even reached seventh place in the Instagram ranking. After the overall Giro victory of Jai Hindley in 2022, the German team once again made a name for itself in tours this year: Nico Denz won two stages at the Tour of Italy, while Jai Hindley and Jordi Meeus secured stage wins at the Tour de France. Lennard Kämna also set an exclamation mark with a stage win at the Vuelta. Jai Hindley made it into the top 10 of the rankings at the Tour, Lennard Kämna at the Giro and Aleksandr Vlasov and Cian Uijtdebroeks at the Vuelta. However, Bora-Hansgrohe did not achieve any top placings, but could do so in 2024 thanks to Top transfer Primoz Roglic follow.
6. EF Education EasyPost - 522,000 followers
The two US teams, both of which have reached half a million followers, are now coming in a double pack. First up is the EF Education EasyPost team, which was supported by young Ben Healy, among others. The Irishman not only won a stage at the Giro d'Italia, but also achieved top placings at the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The team also celebrated a double victory at the Malaysian second-class Tour de Langkawi with Jefferson Cepeda and Simon Carr.
5th Lidl-Trek - 577,000 followers
Lidl-Trek is not only in fifth place in the Instagram ranking, but also in the UCI world rankings. Compared to the previous year, the team has taken a significant step forward. The main reasons for this are Mattias Skjelmosewho won the Tour de Suisse overall classification and came second at Fleche Wallonne, Mads Pedersen, who celebrated victories at the Cyclassics or the Tour de France, and Giulio Ciccone, who took the mountain classification at the Tour de France.
4th Soudal - Quick Step - 597,000 followers
Above all Remco Evenepoel guaranteed a good season for the Belgian team Soudal - Quick Step. By winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the UAE Tour and the Clasica San Sebastian, he collected plenty of UCI points for his team, which ranks third in the annual comparison. The Belgian superstar is likely to have brought the team a large number of followers, meaning that the team is in fourth place in the Instagram ranking.
3rd Movistar Team - 725,000 followers
The Spanish Movistar team made it onto the podium in the Instagram ranking, but sank into mediocrity in the UCI world rankings and was unable to build on the successes of the past. Figurehead Enric Mas could only manage sixth place in the Grand Tours at the domestic Vuelta. The only victories at World Tour level were stage wins by Einer Rubio and Fernando Gaviria at the Giro d'Italia, the UAE Tour and the Tour de Romandie. The Spaniards will also have to do without the promising talent Matteo Jorgenson, who has moved to Visma | Lease a Bike.
2nd Visma | Lease a Bike - 779,000 followers
Team Jumbo-Visma was the big dominator in the 2023 tours. In all three Grand Tours, a rider from the Dutch team always finished at the top. This was topped once again at the Vuelta a Espana, when the entire podium consisted solely of riders from Jumbo-Visma. The team, which from this season Visma | Lease a Bike means, were Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Sepp Kuss were outstanding. It was also successful in one-day races: Christophe Laporte won Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen, Wout van Aert the E3 Saxo Classic and Dylan van Baarle Omloop Het Nieuwsbald.
1st Ineos Grenadiers - 1.1 million followers
With over 1.1 million Instagram followers, Ineos Grenadiers has the largest fanbase of any professional team on the internet platform. However, the British team did not have a really good year in 2023, missing out on the Grand Tours and Geraint Thomas Pidcock narrowly missed out on overall victory in the Giro d'Italia, while Carlos Rodriguez finished fifth in the Tour de France. Tom Pidcock and Filippo Ganna also narrowly missed out on victory in the Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Milan-San Remo monuments. Tom Pidcock's only victory in a one-day race at World Tour level came at Strade Bianche.
