“It’s a fairytale for Norwegian sport” – Uno-X Mobility complete historic WorldTour promotion after sensational victory in Veneto

Sakarias Koller Loland’s first professional victory at the 2025 Veneto Classic will be remembered as far more than a personal milestone. His breakthrough ride not only delivered the 24-year-old Norwegian the biggest win of his career, but also secured Uno-X Mobility’s long-sought promotion to the UCI WorldTour — the highest level of the sport — for the first time in history.

The win caps a defining moment in Scandinavian cycling, elevating the Norwegian outfit into the same tier as the sport’s global heavyweights. After three seasons of relentless progress, Uno-X have finally broken through the barrier that has separated them from automatic entry to the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana for the next three years.

Loland’s victory came at the end of a tactical, chaotic edition of the Veneto Classic, where he outsprinted Florian Vermeersch, Diego Ulissi, and Lorenzo Germani after a tense finale on the gravel ramps above Bassano del Grappa. It was a first professional win that could hardly have been scripted better.

“This is incredible,” Loland said at the finish. “It’s going to take a while for this to sink in. I had a good feeling before the start today, and I’m so happy that we managed to finish the job.”

It was the job not just of a rider, but of an entire organisation fighting to establish itself among cycling’s elite. Uno-X had gone into the final weekend of the season locked in a tight battle with Cofidis for the final automatic WorldTour spot. Ahead of the race, just 210 UCI points separated the two. By the end of the day in Italy, the gap had widened to 398 — enough to seal promotion once and for all.

For Norway, the achievement carries a significance beyond points and rankings. It marks the first time a fully Norwegian team will have guaranteed entry to the sport’s three Grand Tours — an accomplishment long thought out of reach for a country of just over five million people.

“You can compare this to a Norwegian football club qualifying for the Champions League for the next three years,” said TV 2 cycling expert Mads Kaggestad. “It means they’ll now get to compete against the very best, and it gives them the opportunity to keep growing. It’s a fairytale for Norwegian sport — and Uno-X wrote the next chapter today.”

For Kaggestad, the symbolism of Loland’s win could hardly have been clearer. “When he attacked and won, it was absolutely incredible — a perfect, symbolic ending,” he said.

Indeed, for Uno-X, this wasn’t merely a one-day success, but the culmination of a long-term project that began with a vision of building a Scandinavian superstructure from the ground up — one that would inspire, develop, and eventually compete with the world’s best. On the roads of Veneto, that dream finally became a reality.

As the team now prepares to step onto cycling’s biggest stage in 2026, Loland’s breakthrough will stand as the victory that changed everything — for himself, for Uno-X, and for Norwegian cycling.