2023 Groups Breakdown: Now that the 2023 season is over, Spencer Martin breaks down the UCI Staff Rankings. What the ultimate UCI Staff level rankings inform us about which outfits over, and beneath, carried out in the course of the 2023 season and what which may inform us for 2024.

– This text is an excerpt from the Past the Peloton publication. 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 tendencies 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 crew stacked up by way of the UCI level rankings.

Under are the highest 23 groups (18 1st division + 4 PT) so as of the UCI factors they gained from their high 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 crew’s riders get to 1st place, and the larger the race, the extra factors your crew will get.

UAE Staff Emirates took the UCI factors

2023 Season Prime 23 Staff UCI Level Rankings

Notably, Staff UAE Emirates, after an extremely centered points-scoring marketing campaign, topped Jumbo-Visma to take the highest spot within the UCI rankings for the primary time, with Soudal-QuickStep, after a number of down seasons, shrugged off seemingly fixed off-road distractions and monetary points to bag a formidable third place.

Once we check out the win standings, Jumbo-Visma’s standing as the game’s finest crew begins to emerge, whereas UAE finishes a robust second over Soudal-QuickStep, who, after successful ten straight win titles from 2012-2021, fails to win however is available in third properly forward of Ineos, who, regardless of a large finances, continues to wrestle to win at a price greater than groups with a lot tighter payrolls like Alpecin and Lidl.

Jumbo-Visma took extra wins

2023 Wins, Podiums & Prime Tens per WorldTour Groups

Under we are able to see how my pre-season BTP NET projection mannequin stacked up towards the post-season UCI Staff Level Rankings, and which groups over and under-performed their points-based projections.

Remaining UCI Level WorldTour Rating Positions In comparison with Thier 2023 Staff BTP NET Projections:
1) UAE-Staff Emirates (BTP NET: 1)
2) Staff 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-Training First (BTP NET: 13)
12) Movistar Staff (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 Beneath & 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-Training First (+2)
Astana (+2)
Movistar Staff (0)
UAE-Staff Emirates (0)
Staff 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 crew?

4 Key Takeaways:

1) UAE could have gained the standings, however Jumbo-Visma is the game’s finest crew

• Regardless of ending atop the UCI factors standings (thanks partly to a particularly aggressive points-hunting technique), the pronouncements from Staff UAE Emirates that they have been 2023’s high crew are, indisputably, false.
• As a substitute, Jumbo-Visma, who had the perfect season from any crew (not less than one which I might discover) within the historical past of the game by successful each grand tour and main the season in whole wins, takes the crown.

UAE had their finest season ever

2) UAE as soon as once more did not win the Tour de France and struggled to appear to be a cohesive crew all through massive elements of the season, however produced their finest season ever

• Ending atop the 2023 UCI standings confirms simply how far the crew 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 may gather (i.e. sending gifted and match squads to all of the late-season Italian races), is a testomony to the crew’s spectacular recruitment over the previous few years, which has seen them gather strong veterans like Adam Yates, in addition to high-production children like João Almeida, Brandon McNulty, and Marc Hirschi.
• Whereas they don’t at all times do the perfect job of racing as a crew, particularly when Pogačar isn’t current, UAE does an ideal 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 at all times produce the perfect crew 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 ought to 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 acquired a great 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 similar stage, Jayco-Alula and Israel-Premier Tech put collectively strong seasons resulting from having young-and-coming riders like Filippo Zana (Jayco) and Derek Gee (IPT) enormously surpass their expectations.
• Curiously, 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 Scores 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 remaining 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 determination to spend huge on Primož Roglič

• Astana could have taken the title because the worst first-division crew, 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 robust roster and a strong backroom construction, they underperformed resulting from having no riders able to high-volume factors scoring.
• Whereas Bora has a variety of high-ceiling gifted riders like Aleksander Vlasov, Jai Hindley, Lennard Kämna, and Cian Uijtdebroeks, all of them wrestle to get a excessive quantity of wins at a constant price.
• For instance, Jumbo had six riders rating extra factors than Bora’s high performer (Vlasov), UAE had 4, and even Lidl-Trek had three.
• This ‘lacking chief’ concern is probably going one of many primary causes the setup felt compelled to take a position such a large quantity to just lately purchase Primož Roglič’s vastly costly contract from Jumbo (rumored to be a €3 million buyout payment and €6 million per 12 months wage).

A brand new begin and some huge cash for Primoz Roglič

After breaking down the 2024 Tour de France route, I shall be moving into the same old BTP low season content material of digging deeper into crew outcomes and tendencies from the 2023 season in additional depth, restarting the Weekly Switch Evaluation, performing my annual State of the Nation evaluation on People within the WorldTour and making an attempt to venture 2024 performances with my BTP NET sequence after the rosters are set in January. An vital word is that in order for you entry to each submit, you should be a paying BTP subscriber.

Jayco-AlUla have been strong in 2023

# Spencer Martin is the writer of the cycling-analysis publication Past the Peloton that breaks down the nuances of every race and solutions huge image questions surrounding crew and rider efficiency. Enroll now to get full entry to all of the out there content material and race breakdowns. #

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