"It's time to look to the future": Tadej Pogacar's agent urges UCI to adapt changes to preserve cycling at all levels

The end of the 2025 road season has led to the typical criteriums where cyclists perform exhibitions for the public. For example, this Sunday in Saitama one was held in which Jonas Vingegaard won. The Visma star won in front of the Japanese public. But as well as these races, there are also analyses of what happened in cycling.

In this context, Alex Carera, representative of Tadej Pogacar (among other cyclists for whom he is also an agent), has outlined his ideas via his Instagram account for improving in competition. A message to the UCI? Here's what he started by pointing out:

"The time has come to act, and it must be done quickly. Some sponsors are expected to pull out in 2025, albeit for different reasons. What should we do? There is no single solution, but I have two ideas to generate interest in the Pro Teams."

"These teams are the basis of professional cycling. We need to create a specific calendar for this category (to ensure visibility for sponsors) and establish a maximum number of 1.1 and 2.1 races in which World Tour teams can participate," explained Alex Carera.

"These changes will ensure more equitable victories, generate excitement and make the UCI team classification more accurate (as well as accommodate the U23 structures), as each team will participate in the same number of races throughout the year."

"Successful Pro Teams will become future World Tour teams, as has already happened with Alpecin-Deceuninck, Uno-X Mobility and Arkéa - B&B Hotels, or with important teams like Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team and Tudor Pro Cycling Team. Cycling is a unique sport, but it must look to the future," said Tadej Pogacar's agent, very clear about the situation with the three-year period coming to an end.

With this, Carera refers to actions such as the merger between Lotto and Intermarché or the situation of Israel - Premier Tech, which will no longer be called that way after disassociating itself from the country and losing Premier Tech's sponsorship.

It comes along with a painful realization that while the amount of WorldTour teams (18) hasn't changed for many years, the number of ProTeams has dropped considerably over the past decade. While in 2018, there were 27 teams at the Pro-level, in 2026, there will be only 16 and the best continental teams such as ATT Investments, Terengganu Cycling or Li Ning Star openly admit that promoting to Pro category brings no benefit to them.