UAE dominate, EF surge and Picnic slide further in the post-Tour UCI rankings

As the biggest race on the calendar, the Tour represented a major opportunity for teams to score significant UCI points, with some capitalising on the chance while others struggled to make the impact they had hoped for.

Thanks to the exploits of Tadej Pogačar, Isaac del Toro and the rest of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad, the Emirati team have extended their lead at the top of the rankings.

The world champion claimed a record-equalling fifth yellow jersey and won five stages along the way, taking his career total to 26.

Pogačar also played the role of domestique on occasion, supporting Isaac del Toro’s stage 2 victory in Barcelona before the Mexican secured third overall and the white jersey. As a result of another dominant Tour performance, UAE scored more points than any other team.

UAE began the Tour with a 2,830.06-point lead over Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in second place and finished the French Grand Tour with an increased advantage of 5,821.42 points over the German team, who remained the best of the rest.

That is not to say Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe did not enjoy a successful Tour, because they certainly did. Remco Evenepoel delivered the best Tour performance of his career so far, winning two stages en route to finishing second overall behind Pogačar.

Red Bull signed the Olympic champion with the ambition of challenging at the highest level, and after ending the previous 2023–2025 cycle in fifth place, the move has already proven successful as they now sit second. 

Like UAE, Red Bull also extended their advantage over their nearest rivals, Visma | Lease a Bike, who endured a difficult Tour despite a positive start, winning the team time trial in Barcelona. Red Bull have almost tripled their lead over Visma, from 868.63 to 2,369.95.

Jonas Vingegaard’s crash on stage 15, while he was second overall, meant the Dutch team lost the opportunity to score a significant number of potential UCI points in the final GC, with Sepp Kuss eventually finishing as their best-placed rider in 13th in Paris.

In the rankings, Visma remain third, although Decathlon CMA CGM have closed the gap in fourth from 2,176.32 points to 876.39. Paul Seixas’ fourth-place finish and Olav Kooij’s stage victory were key factors in the French team closing the gap.

Lidl-Trek round out the top five after Mads Pedersen's stage and points classification victories, as well as Mattias Skjelmose finishing sixth overall and Juan Ayuso in seventh.

One of the biggest movers was EF Education-EasyPost, which enjoyed a standout Tour led by Richard Carapaz.

The former Olympic champion was electric in particular during the third week in the Alps, winning two stages and claiming the polka-dot jersey. The American team began the Tour in a difficult 20th place in the rankings, but their strong performance has lifted them to 14th, with the ambition now being to carry that momentum into the remaining races and continue their rise.

Currently, sixteen of the top 18 positions are occupied by teams holding WorldTour status. The two ProTeams inside that group are Pinarello-Q36.5, who sit 15th, and Cofidis, who were a WorldTour team in the previous cycle and currently occupy 18th.

Pinarello-Q36.5 have consistently climbed the rankings since the arrival of Tom Pidcock in 2025 and have been solid performers throughout 2026. The Briton featured in numerous breakaways during the Tour, scoring valuable stage points before finishing ninth overall.

Meanwhile, Cofidis endured a quieter Tour compared to Pinarello-Q36.5, although Belgian sprinter Milan Fretin’s consistent top-ten finishes on sprint stages helped the French team remain in a provisional WorldTour position by Paris.

The two current WorldTour teams outside the top 18 are Groupama-FDJ United and Picnic PostNL.

Both endured challenging Tours, highlighted by finishing the three weeks with the third-lowest and lowest amounts of prize money won, respectively, alongside a limited haul of UCI points.

Groupama, while below their expected position, sit 20th in the rankings, just 216.48 points behind Cofidis. A strong run of results until the end of 2026 could therefore propel the French team back into the top 18.

The situation is far more difficult for Picnic PostNL, who currently sit 30th in the UCI team rankings, well behind their WorldTour rivals.

The Dutch team entered the Tour in 28th place and, with several teams above them not invited, had an opportunity to score crucial points that were unavailable to those ProTeams ahead of them. A strong Tour could have allowed them to move up the standings.

Ultimately, that opportunity was not taken. Picnic PostNL slipped to 30th overall, leaving them in need of a significant improvement in results on a much larger scale than the turnaround achieved by XDS Astana in the previous cycle if they are to defend their WorldTour status.