“Wouldn’t it be better if the big teams focused on the big races?” – Visma boss Richard Plugge calls for UCI ranking system reform

The gap between how the sport measures success and how fans actually judge it has rarely felt wider. As the 2026 season unfolds, Team Visma | Lease a Bike find themselves outside the top two spots in the UCI Team Rankings despite delivering results at the very highest level, and that disconnect has now prompted a clear response from team boss Richard Plugge.

Speaking to Het Laatste Nieuws, Plugge questioned whether the current system is pushing teams in the wrong direction, pointing to a calendar increasingly shaped by points accumulation rather than the prestige of cycling’s biggest races.

His comments come at a time when UAE Team Emirates - XRG lead the standings, built not only on headline victories but also on depth and consistency across the calendar. By contrast, Visma’s own season tells a very different story.

On paper, Visma’s 2026 campaign stacks up with the very best. Wout van Aert delivered a Monument victory at Paris-Roubaix, beating Tadej Pogacar head to head in one of the defining moments of the spring. Jonas Vingegaard has added overall wins at Paris-Nice and Volta a Catalunya. By any traditional measure, that is the profile of a leading team. Yet in the rankings, those results are not enough on their own.

The reason lies in how points are accumulated. The current system rewards not just victories in the biggest races, but also consistent scoring across a packed calendar. Teams with greater depth, and those racing more frequently, naturally build higher totals.

Plugge highlighted exactly that issue. “Last week I saw WorldTour teams racing in the Tour of Hainan to pick up points so they don’t get relegated in two years’ time,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be better if the big teams focused on the big races and made those events more exciting?”

At the centre of the debate is the three year ranking cycle that determines WorldTour status. With relegation a real threat, teams are increasingly forced to think strategically about where points can be collected, not just where prestige lies.

Plugge believes that shift is damaging the sport’s structure. “In football, it’s unheard of that an amateur club wins a match and gets to take part in the Champions League,” he said. “In our sport, by winning a lot of small races, you can end up in cycling’s Champions League. Nobody benefits from that.”

That comparison underlines his frustration. While Visma continue to target the biggest races, other teams are able to close the gap through volume, entering more events and accumulating points steadily throughout the season.

It also helps explain why Visma, despite a Monument win and multiple WorldTour stage race victories, still trail in the standings.

Plugge stopped short of dismissing the rankings entirely, but made clear he does not see them as a true reflection of performance. “It is my ambition to become the best team of this decade,” he said. “We won all three Grand Tours in 2023. I dare to say that we are currently leading that ranking, but that is not reflected in the points because some teams race a hundred more events per year than we do and therefore collect more points.”

His proposed solution is structural. “We need to give the WorldTour and the ProTour their own separate ranking.”

That idea goes to the heart of the issue now facing the sport. In a season where Visma’s biggest results have come on cycling’s grandest stages, the numbers suggest one reality, while the racing itself tells another.