The fact that UAE Team Emirates is leading the team ranking of the UCI world rankings at the end of the 2024 cycling season should hardly come as a surprise. However, the extent to which Tour de France and Giro d'Italia winner Tadej Pogacar's team stands out from the competition is quite unexpected. 37,407.6 points were collected by the best 20 riders in the squad, whose individual scores are added together for the team ranking. That's around 6500 points more than last year, when UAE had the best team in the peloton for the first time.
However, more than 37,000 points are also almost twice as many as the 20,427.98 points that Visma | Lease a Bike scored as the second-best team of the season. For the Dutch team, who won all three Grand Tours last year - and none this year - that is 9,000 fewer than in 2023, when there were just 1,000 points between the two top teams. Third place in the 2024 world rankings was defended by Soudal - Quick Step, who scored 18,153.97 points, a similar result to last year.
Red Bull and Decathlon make leap forward, Bahrain biggest loser alongside Visma
Last year, fourth place went to Ineos Grandiers. However, the British team now had to settle for seventh place and around 2000 points less (now 15,547.97). However, they are not the biggest losers either in terms of points - which is clearly Visma | Lease a Bike - or positions. Bahrain-Victorious is responsible for the negative peak value. Sixth last year, the team has now slipped to 17th place. 6000 points less (now 9547.16) are the main reason for this.
Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe were the main climbers. 16,894.33 points now mean fifth place and 3,500 points more than in 2023, when it was enough for tenth place. The biggest winner, however, is Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. The team now ranks directly behind the Germans with 15,930.84 points. With a whopping plus of almost 7,000 points, this is the biggest improvement ever among the teams compared to last year. This also secures the claim to be France's best team again, which is particularly important in the Grand Nation.
Only eleven teams better than soloist Pogacar
Groupama-FDJ has now lost this title again. Nevertheless, the team, tenth in the world rankings with 12,357 points, has narrowly escaped the embarrassment of coming off worse than the one-man team of Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian season dominator collected 11,600 points alone and would have finished twelfth in the world team rankings, just behind Israel-Premier Tech (11,723.33 points), who were the second-best second-division team. The best team with a Pro licence was once again Lotto Dstny in ninth place in the world rankings (12,579.29 points).
The top 10 of the UCI Team Ranking 2024
- UAE Team Emirates (United Arab Emirates) 37,407.6 points
- Visma | Lease a Bike (Netherlands) 20,427.98
- Soudal - Quick Step (Belgium) 18,153.97
- Lidl-Trek (USA) 17,989
- Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe (Germany) 16,894.33
- AG2R Decathlon La Mondiale (France) 15,930.84
- Ineos Grenadiers (Great Britain) 15,547.97
- Alpecin-Deceuninck (Belgium) 15,020
- Lotto Dstny (Belgium) 12,579.29
- Groupama-FDJ (France) 12,357
In terms of the number of victories, UAE Emirates 2024 is also clearly leading the way. The men in the white jerseys cheered 81 times in total. That is also almost twice as many as the second-best team. Lidl-Trek achieved 42 victories. Last year, Visma | Lease a Bike had the lead with 69 victories, while UAE had 57. Behind the two top teams in terms of victories, things are quite close. Soudal - Quick Step (34), Visma | Lease a Bike (32) and Decathlon AG2R (30) follow in the places. Then comes Israel-Premier Tech, the best ProTeam (29), followed by Uno-X Mobility (26). Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe achieved 24 victories in 2024, which equates to eleventh place. The two best continental teams, Lidl-Trek Future Racing and the Polish team Mazowsze Serce Polski, also celebrated 17 victories, putting them well ahead of some of the other Wolrd teams. Cofidis brought up the rear with five.
Belgium dominates nation rankings once again
Meanwhile, there has been little movement in the UCI's nation rankings. Belgium was once again clearly in the lead, topping the 2024 world rankings for the fifth year in a row. 24,499 points were around 1400 more than in the previous year. Back then, Denmark was in second place, now it's Slovenia. The safety margin has grown to around 6500 points. The Spanish have improved from sixth to third place, while Great Britain has dropped from fourth to ninth. Overall, the same ten countries are still in the top 10 as a year ago. Germany is still not among them, but has improved from 15th to 13th place and, with 7118.56 points, has not only gained almost 1500 points, but has also narrowed the gap to the USA in tenth place with 9943.7 points.
The top 10 of the UCI Nations Ranking 2024
- Belgium 24,499 points
- Slovenia 17,941.14
- Spain 14,583.86
- France 12,399.71
- Denmark 12,153.34
- Italy 11,847.67
- Netherlands 11,790.99
- Australia 11,522.99
- Great Britain 11,463
- USA 9943.7
The previous winners of the UCI team and nation rankings
- 2024 UAE Team Emirates 37,407.6 points | Belgium 24,499 points
- 2023 UAE Team Emirates 30,958.18 | Belgium 23,090.71
- 2022 Jumbo-Visma 15,003.5 | Belgium 17,901.5
- 2021 Deceuninck - Quick Step 15,641.21 | Belgium 14,364.33
- 2020 Jumbo-Visma 9919 | France 9542.83
- 2019 Deceuninck - Quick Step 14,835.15 | Belgium 13,491.09
- 2018 (no team ranking) | Belgium 14502.02
- 2017 (no team ranking) | Belgium 14,600
- 2016 (no team ranking) | France 13,007
- 2015 (no team ranking) | Spain 16,805
