Interim 3-year ranking: Astana in trouble, Lotto-Dstny on course for recovery
Sebastian Lindner
· 03.11.2023
Lotto-Dstny has mastered the first year after its relegation from the World Tour brilliantly. The Belgian team was by far the strongest on the Pro Tour and has thus set course for direct promotion. The team collected 14,112.83 points, leaving even half of the World Teams behind.
3-year ranking: Israel and Lotto on course for resurgence
The second-best team with a Pro Tour licence in 2023 was Israel-Premier Tech. This team also had to cope with relegation from cycling's elite league. The 10,022 points collected are enough for 16th place in the team world rankings, meaning that the team of owner Sylvan Adams also left four World Teams behind.
The best five Pro Teams 2023
- 1st place: Lotto-Dstny (Belgium) 14,112.83 points
- 2nd place: Israel-Premier Tech (Israel) 10,022
- 3rd place: Uno-X Pro Cycling Team 6569
- 4th place: TotalEnergies 5765
- 5th place: Q36.5 pro Cycling Team 3397.67
Astana Qazaqstan, on the other hand, have to deal with relegation worries. Manager Alexandre Vinokourov's team collected the fewest points of all the World Teams, scoring just 7044.44 points. Arkea-Samsic did not fare much better. The French team collected 7229 points. Two teams will have to relinquish their World Tour licence after the 2026 season for sporting reasons. To the two best Pro teams, provided they fulfil all the other criteria for promotion. The WT licence guarantees participation in all races in the highest category, but also obliges teams to do so.
The worst five World Teams 2023
- 18th place: Astana Qazaqstan (Kazakhstan) 7044.44 points
- 17th place: Arkea-Samsic (France) 7229
- 16th place: Team dsm-firmenich (Netherlands) 9102.2
- 15th place: AG2R-Citroën Team (France) 9109
- 14th place: Cofidis (France) 10,437.41
De Lie and Woods deliver the most points
Arnaud De Lie is primarily responsible for Lotto-Dstny's success. The young Belgian sprinter has scored 2891 points for his team alone. De Lie celebrated ten victories - the one at the World Tour race in Quebec was particularly important for his team, bringing in 500 points alone. If the actual winning rider in the team, Caleb Ewan, had performed as well this season as in previous years, Lotto-Dstny could have done even better in the 3-year ranking.
At Israel-Premier Tech, the Canadian faction performed particularly well. Michael Woods' stage win at the Tour de France on the Puy de Dome was not only prestigious, but also worth 210 UCI points. His total of 1478 points is the best in the team. Derek Gee may have missed out on victory several times at the Giro, but four second places on stages and second place in both the mountains and points jerseys were good for a total of 780 points.
Astana lacks Cavendish points
On the other hand, there were top performers in the World Teams who, for various reasons, did not deliver the expected points and put their teams in trouble. For example, Astana is missing the points of Mark Cavendish, who was unable to contribute to the 3-year classification after his crash on stage 8 of the Tour de France.
Astana had also hoped for more from Alexey Lutsenko, who was the best of his team with just under 1500 points, but only finished the Tour in 40th place overall. A good October with victory in the Tour of Turkey and a successful Asian Games could still salvage his record to some extent.
At Arkea-Samsic, Warren Barguil, Kevin Vauquelin and Hugo Hofstetter in particular, who had been planned as points scorers, were all unable to deliver. This is another reason why Arnaud Demare's summer switch from Groupama-FDJ to Arkea came at the perfect time. The sprinter's victories at Paris-Bourges, the Tour de Vendee and fourth place at the Cyclassics in Hamburg at least made his account, which would have been even emptier without his points, look a little better.
Chasing and saving places at a distance
While Astana and Arkea are almost 2,000 points behind dsm-firmenich and AG2R-Citroën and the places to be saved, the gap between Lotto-Dstny and Israel-Premier Tech is much greater. The ambitious Uno-X Pro Cycling Team from Norway, which is keen to move up, is already around 3500 points behind Israel, with TotalEnergies around 800 more.
But even if the gaps are already clear, especially in the promotion race, these are only interim results. The standings at the end of the 2026 season are decisive. Driver changes or lengthy retirements of top drivers could turn the ranking of the 3-year classification upside down again in the next two seasons.
