It's like moving the finish line of a race when at least three-quarters of the kilometers have already been covered. Or like deciding that the football championship will have three more or fewer matches. There will always be those who rejoice because they felt their energies waning, and those who protest because they had set up their pursuit in a certain way.

From the beginning of the season, there are teams whose objective is survival, namely staying in the WorldTour. And on June 12th, they discovered that... it's no longer necessary.

A sentence from the very long UCI statement clarifies the concept: "From 2026, the top three UCI ProTeams of the previous year will thus have access to all UCI WorldTour calendar events".

Translated, no one will be relegated. Moreover, if things don't change further, the top three UCI ProTeams will have fewer obligations than their WorldTour colleagues and will be able to skip - as TotalEnergies and Lotto have done in recent years - some major events.

No obligations but many honors, despite relegation.

Look at the current ranking - updated last Tuesday, excluding Dauphiné: Lotto and Israel Premier Tech enter the top 18 and Cofidis and Arkea B&B Hotels exit, currently occupying the 19th and 21st positions, with Uno-X Mobility inserting itself between them.

Behind them, the abyss: Arkea today has 19,452 points while TotalEnergies, in 22nd position, has 13,814. As if to say you would need to win five Tours - not five stages - to bridge the gap.

So, everyone saved, everyone happy and - barring any dramatic withdrawals that cannot be excluded because the French teams, especially Arkea and Decathlon, are looking for new sponsors - we'll talk about it in the future. This also applies to teams with decidedly interesting budgets like Tudor and Q36.5, unless the regulations are revolutionized along the way.

WILDCARDS. "You wanted the 23rd team? Fine, you got it, but - as we told you - we'll do it our way". This seems to be, from the very beginning, the strong thought of the UCI regarding the wildcards for the grand tours.

So for the organizers, the obligation to invite the 18 WorldTour teams, which in turn have the obligation to participate, and the top three ProTeams of the previous season, who have the option to decline. Mathematics doesn't lie: 18+3 equals 21, leaving only 2 spots available for the organizers.

To stay current, this year at the Giro there were 4 wildcards: the Italian VF Group Bardiani CSF Faizanè and Team Polti VisitMalta, in order of world ranking, and the Swiss Tudor Pro Cycling and Q36.5 Pro Cycling, again according to the ranking.

All four could advance their candidacy next year, Solution Tech Vini Fantini has also entered the top 30 teams in the world and will have the Giro in its sights. In other words, already today, regardless of further candidacies that cannot be excluded, five teams are fighting for two spots. Certainly a hot situation, notwithstanding the possibility for the three ProTour teams to decline the invitation: will they all be able to do so? Or just one? Or two?

Many things will depend on the answer to this question: but are we really sure - especially in light of the truly sad spectacle that too many WorldTour teams provided at the last Giro d'Italia - that this is the future of cycling?