UCI Rankings Team Update | UAE remain on throne, Godon brings INEOS close to a top-10 and Lotto find an unlikely hero

The first Grand Tour of this season is about to begin. On Friday, some of the cycling's biggest names line up for the Grande Partenza in Nessebar in search of glory, success and a huge haul of UCI points. That means that this week's iteration of UCI Ranking shaped by Tour de Romandie, Eschborn-Frankfurt, and the Tour of Turkey will not remain in effect for too long.

Tadej Pogacar’s overall win in Switzerland, with four stages included, further extended UAE Team Emirates - XRG’s dominance. Thanks to the Slovenian, the UAE formation passes the 13,000 points benchmark (13,196.5). The double world champion banked 820 points on his own after taking the overall, four stages, placing 6th in the prologue, and 4th on stage 3.

Behind UAE, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe hold a firm 2nd and also shone last week. The German squad keep stretching their gap over Visma | Lease a Bike, despite Jorgen Nordhagen’s 4th overall at Romandie. Thanks to Florian Lipowitz, 2nd overall there with 522 UCI points, and Luke Tuckwell, 6th with 175, Red Bull pass the 10,000 mark and sit 1,300 clear of Visma.

Do not overlook Netcompany INEOS Cycling Team. The British outfit were protagonists at Romandie thanks to their best signing of the year. And no, not Oscar Onley, who quit after the prologue. Dorian Godon took two stage wins and a 2nd place to collect 180 points and leave INEOS just 40 shy of the season’s Top 10, still rounded out by Lidl-Trek.

Things keep trending up at Bahrain - Victorious. The team climbed from 7th to 6th thanks above all to a Lenny Martínez who is confirming himself as a rising star. The Frenchman reached the Romandie podium, netting 370 crucial points. Pello Bilbao also placed 4th at Eschborn-Frankfurt, allowing Bahrain to move ahead of Alpecin-Premier Tech, down to 7th. The Belgian team is feeling the lack of spring classics points despite two second places in sprints at Tour of Turkey.

As for the rest of the Top 10, XDS Astana Team remain 5th after a few flashes at the Tour of Turkey, where Davide Ballerini won a stage. Jayco AlUla stay 8th after celebrating Luke Plapp’s strong 5th overall at Romandie, and Soudal - Quick-Step hold 9th thanks to Junior Lecerf’s 10th overall there as their top result.

Behind the top positions, both WorldTour newcomer Uno-X Mobility and old acquaintance Cofidis hold firmly in the middle of the pack with a 500-point buffer to relegation battle.

Behind them, Lotto-Intermarché enjoyed a great weekend thanks to victories of Georg Zimmerman at Eschborn-Frankfurt (400 points) and Arnaud de Lie at Lotto Famenne Ardenne Classic (125 points). This had allowed them to bounce off the bottom and move up to 14th place.

On contrary, EF Education-EasyPost lose ground in the weekly update, dropping from 16th to 19th place, virtually out of WorldTour for the moment. The full infirmary is starting to catch up to the American team who've been without their key leaders for much of this season.

While Tudor and Unibet quietly prepare for Giro d'Italia, the bottom-WorldTour teams have regained some of their ground over the past week as the 18th team's advantage expanded from 250 points last week to 400 and 600 respectively at the moment. Using opportunity to score at Tour of Turkey, Caja Rural - Seguros RGA flied up the ProTour rankings to sit only 250 points shy off TotalEnergies in a battle for automatic wild card to all WorldTour one-day events.

Meanwhile, Pinarello Q36.5 virtually entered the top division in 17th position thanks to a second place of Tom Pidcock at the Eschborn-Frankfurt.