2023 Groups Breakdown: Now that the 2023 season is over, Spencer Martin breaks down the UCI Workforce Rankings. What the ultimate UCI Workforce level rankings inform us about which outfits over, and underneath, carried out through the 2023 season and what which may inform us for 2024.
– This text is an excerpt from the Past the Peloton e-newsletter. Enroll right here for full entry. –
Jumbo-Visma domination
With the Tour of Guangxi ending final week and marking the top of the 2023 WorldTour racing calendar, I’ve been reflecting on the traits we noticed emerge prior to now season and planning out the BTP low season content material. To kick off this reflection and re-examination, I wished to step again and take inventory of how every workforce stacked up when it comes to the UCI level rankings.
Beneath are the highest 23 groups (18 1st division + 4 PT) so as of the UCI factors they gained from their prime 20 point-scoring riders all through the 2023 season (aka the UCI level rankings). Here’s a hyperlink to an in-depth scoring information, however the easy rule is that the nearer your workforce’s riders get to 1st place, and the larger the race, the extra factors your workforce will get.
UAE Workforce Emirates took the UCI factors
2023 Season High 23 Workforce UCI Level Rankings
Notably, Workforce UAE Emirates, after an extremely targeted points-scoring marketing campaign, topped Jumbo-Visma to take the highest spot within the UCI rankings for the primary time, with Soudal-QuickStep, after just a few down seasons, shrugged off seemingly fixed off-road distractions and monetary points to bag a powerful third place.
After we check out the win standings, Jumbo-Visma’s standing as the game’s finest workforce begins to emerge, whereas UAE finishes a powerful second over Soudal-QuickStep, who, after successful ten straight win titles from 2012-2021, fails to win however is available in third effectively forward of Ineos, who, regardless of an enormous finances, continues to battle to win at a price increased than groups with a lot tighter payrolls like Alpecin and Lidl.
Jumbo-Visma took extra wins
2023 Wins, Podiums & High Tens per WorldTour Groups
Beneath we are able to see how my pre-season BTP NET projection mannequin stacked up in opposition to the post-season UCI Workforce Level Rankings, and which groups over and under-performed their points-based projections.
Closing UCI Level WorldTour Rating Positions In comparison with Thier 2023 Workforce BTP NET Projections:
1) UAE-Workforce Emirates (BTP NET: 1)
2) Workforce Jumbo-Visma (BTP NET: 2)
3) Fast-Step Alpha Vinyl (BTP NET: 5)
4) INEOS Grenadiers (BTP NET: 3)
5) Lidl-Trek (BTP NET: 11)
6) Bahrain – Victorious (BTP NET: 8)
7) Groupama – FDJ (BTP NET: 7)
8) Alpecin-Deceuninck (BTP NET: 6)
9) Lotto-Dtsy (BTP NET: 18)
10) Bora-Hansgrohe (BTP NET: 4)
11) EF-Schooling First (BTP NET: 13)
12) Movistar Workforce (BTP NET: 12)
13) Jayco-Alula (BTP NET: 17)
14) Cofidis (BTP NET: 9)
15) Intermarché-Wanty (BTP NET: 14)
16) Israel-Premier Tech (BTP NET: 19)
17) DSM-Firmenich (BTP NET: 20)
18) AG2R Citroën (BTP NET: 15)
19) Arkéa-Samsic (BTP NET: 10)
20) Astana (BTP NET: 22)
21) Uno-X (BTP NET: 21)
22) TotalEnergies (BTP NET: 16)
Who Underneath & Over Carried out Their 2023 BTP NET Score:
Lotto-Dtsy (+9)
Lidl-Trek (+6)
Jayco-Alula (+4)
Israel-Premier Tech (+3)
DSM-Firmenich (+3)
Fast-Step Alpha Vinyl (+2)
Bahrain – Victorious (+2)
EF-Schooling First (+2)
Astana (+2)
Movistar Workforce (0)
UAE-Workforce Emirates (0)
Workforce Jumbo-Visma (0)
Groupama – FDJ (0)
Uno-X (0)
INEOS Grenadiers (-1)
Intermarché-Wanty (-1)
Alpecin-Deceuninck (-2)
AG2R Citroën (-3)
Cofidis (-5)
Bora-Hansgrohe (-6)
TotalEnergies (-6)
Arkéa-Samsic (-9)
Who’s the higher workforce?
4 Key Takeaways:
1) UAE could have gained the standings, however Jumbo-Visma is the game’s finest workforce
- Regardless of ending atop the UCI factors standings (thanks partly to an especially aggressive points-hunting technique), the pronouncements from Workforce UAE Emirates that they had been 2023’s prime workforce are, surely, false.
- As an alternative, Jumbo-Visma, who had the most effective season from any workforce (no less than one which I might discover) within the historical past of the game by successful each grand tour and main the season in complete wins, takes the crown.
UAE had their finest season ever
2) UAE as soon as once more didn’t win the Tour de France and struggled to appear like a cohesive workforce all through massive components of the season, however produced their finest season ever
- Ending atop the 2023 UCI standings confirms simply how far the workforce has come since being a one-man band with Tadej Pogačar as its chief, and is much more spectacular contemplating they bested Jumbo-Visma throughout a season when it gained all three grand excursions, and accomplished a podium sweep on the Vuelta a España.
- This accomplishment, outdoors of their season-long technique to maximise the variety of UCI factors they might accumulate (i.e. sending gifted and match squads to all of the late-season Italian races), is a testomony to the workforce’s spectacular recruitment over the previous few years, which has seen them accumulate strong veterans like Adam Yates, in addition to high-production children like João Almeida, Brandon McNulty, and Marc Hirschi.
- Whereas they don’t all the time do the most effective job of racing as a workforce, particularly when Pogačar isn’t current, UAE does an awesome job of discovering gifted riders, getting them within the door, and giving them the liberty to supply particular person outcomes (even when it doesn’t all the time produce the most effective workforce performances).
Lidl-Trek overperformed
3) The overperformers have work to do within the switch market
- Behind the herculean feats of the Galácticos, the modestly funded Lidl-Trek, and Lotto-Dtsy groups impressively outperformed their pre-season BTP NET Score. Because the ranking objectively measures their expertise, outperforming it by 9 and 6 spots is extremely spectacular.
- It must be famous that not all out-performances are created equal. Whereas Lotto-Dtsy racked up an unbelievable quantity of UCI factors at lower-level races, with solely two of their 21 wins coming from WorldTour occasions, Trek bought an excellent chunk of their factors by going head-to-head with the game’s finest riders on the greatest races, racking up eight WorldTour wins in 2023 with their three stars (Mads Pedersen, Giulio Ciccone and Mattias Skjelmose).
- Whereas not on the identical stage, Jayco-Alula and Israel-Premier Tech put collectively strong seasons attributable to having young-and-coming riders like Filippo Zana (Jayco) and Derek Gee (IPT) significantly surpass their expectations.
- Apparently, Astana could have suffered by means of a tough season, ending final within the WorldTour and behind two second-division groups, however they really outperformed their BTP NET Rankings by two spots.
- Whereas these out-performances are nice for these groups, Intermarché-Wanty, who outperformed their 2022 projection by a whopping ten spots within the last 2022 UCI rankings earlier than falling again right down to earth in 2023, confirmed that even probably the most plucky groups will inevitably revert to the imply in the event that they don’t improve their squad within the low season.
Bora-Hansgrohe underperformed
4) Bora’s underperformance might have influenced their resolution to spend huge on Primož Roglič
- Astana could have taken the title because the worst first-division workforce, however digging deeper, Bora-Hansgrohe, TotalEnergies, and Arkea-Samsic all had a lot worse seasons relative to their roster expectations.
- Bora’s struggles are probably the most fascinating case research since, regardless of sporting a powerful roster and a strong backroom construction, they underperformed attributable to having no riders able to high-volume factors scoring.
- Whereas Bora has a whole lot of high-ceiling gifted riders like Aleksander Vlasov, Jai Hindley, Lennard Kämna, and Cian Uijtdebroeks, all of them battle to get a excessive quantity of wins at a constant price.
- For instance, Jumbo had six riders rating extra factors than Bora’s prime performer (Vlasov), UAE had 4, and even Lidl-Trek had three.
- This ‘lacking chief’ difficulty is probably going one of many major causes the setup felt compelled to speculate such an enormous quantity to just lately purchase Primož Roglič’s massively costly contract from Jumbo (rumored to be a €3 million buyout price and €6 million per yr wage).
A brand new begin and some huge cash for Primoz Roglič
After breaking down the 2024 Tour de France route, I might be moving into the standard BTP low season content material of digging deeper into workforce outcomes and traits from the 2023 season in additional depth, restarting the Weekly Switch Evaluation, performing my annual State of the Nation evaluation on Individuals within the WorldTour and trying to mission 2024 performances with my BTP NET collection after the rosters are set in January. An necessary word is that if you would like entry to each submit, you have to be a paying BTP subscriber.
Jayco-AlUla had been strong in 2023
# Spencer Martin is the creator of the cycling-analysis e-newsletter Past the Peloton that breaks down the nuances of every race and solutions huge image questions surrounding workforce and rider efficiency. Enroll now to get full entry to all of the accessible content material and race breakdowns. #
Like PEZ? Why not subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter to obtain updates and reminders on what’s cool in street biking?
