The second major stage race of the season, the Tour de France, is now behind us, and emerging from the yellow whirlwind that involved fans and insiders over the past three weeks, it's time to take stock and evaluate, with a cool head, how riders and various teams performed in the July dance before launching into the final part of the season.

In this context, one of the best litmus tests (if not the most appropriate of all in this particular year) for weighing the performance of the competing formations is represented by the number of UCI points earned during the Grande Boucle, which, it's worth remembering, was potentially the most rewarding event from this perspective.

Reviewing the points collected by various teams allows for a truthful and objective assessment of the results achieved by each, results that, in addition to directly translating into points, have had the consequence of partially redefining both the 2025 team ranking and the one related to the last three years.

WORLD TOUR PASS 2026-2028.

While some teams like UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Visma Lease a Bike, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe and Picnic PostNL played a leading role, ending up appropriating almost half of the points awarded beyond the Alps from July 5 to 27 (13,020 out of 29,120), others had considerable difficulties making themselves heard and staying in the race.

The reference is clearly to the five teams that remained below the 500-point threshold, Movistar (475), Lotto (475), Intermarchè-Wanty (385, all signed by Girmay), Israel Premier Tech (320) and Cofidis (155), some of which "paid" for such scores with inevitable repercussions on their 2023/2025 ranking: the Belgian team, for example, overtaken by both XDS Astana (also boosted by the 431 points earned at the Tour of Magnificent Qinghai) and PicNic PostNL, ended up in 18th position (the last to confirm the license in the top category for the next three years), while Roberto Damiani's team, while remaining in 19th position, saw the gap from the safety zone increase from 386 to 1,471 points.

Meanwhile, Uno-X Mobility has returned strongly, which, driven by the achievements of Abrahamsen, Tobias Johannessen and companions, now boasts only 328 points (they were 1,364 at the start from Lille) away from Cofidis: for the Norwegians, however, it will be difficult to target the direct World Tour pass (1,799 points away) given that both the white-red team and Intermarchè will be able to play the "card" of the Vuelta Espana in August, another three-week stage race where both can add significant points to the ranking and push back the return of the Scandinavian troop.

2026 STAGE RACE INVITATIONS.

The latter, even if not fully entering the World Tour, we can already say will almost certainly participate by right in all the main stage races of the major circuit next year. With the Tour points, in fact, Vegar Kulset's team has reaffirmed being the best ProTeam of 2025, a title they should easily confirm in three months.

Along with them, according to the new UCI guidelines and assuming Lotto and Israel's jump to the top tier, Tudor (17th in the 2025 ranking after the Tour) and Q36.5 would currently enjoy the same privilege, though the latter is now closely threatened by TotalEnergies, which, thanks to the 580 points collected at the Grande Boucle, has reduced the gap to only 389 points from the Swiss team. However, unlike Jean-René Bernaudeau's men, they will be at the Vuelta in August and can thus use a Grand Tour to defend their position.

A VARIABLE TO CONSIDER.

Regardless, TotalEnergies should pursue the best possible year-end placement because a variable could come into play and overturn all discussions about promotions, relegations, and guaranteed invitations to 2026 World Tour stage races - the much-discussed merger between Lotto and Intermarchè.

This operation, not yet materialized, brings with it an inevitable veil of mystery around the composition of the first two world leagues next year and a wide range of questions: What license will the newborn formation have? Will it be a World Tour team? If so, how will the spot left vacant by one of the two be replaced? Will another team be promoted or called up? And consequently, will another ProTeam enjoy invitations to multi-day World Tour races?

This tangled skein can only be unraveled when, eventually, this maneuver goes through and all the pieces, on both sides, are put in place. The hope is that everything is resolved as quickly as possible because, by extension, the future is at stake - both in terms of the ability to plan the next season and the opportunity to sign new, lucrative commercial agreements - for multiple teams who, beyond the stress of fighting for every available point until October, would like to avoid the disappointment of having the cards changed retroactively.