UCI have ratified what might be one of the greatest reforms to the way its team rankings work. From 2027 onwards, points from other disciplines such as cyclocross, mountain bike (XCO), track and gravel will carry over to teams' road tally. And for mountain bike world, this change might be coming at the very best possible time.

Teams folding has always been an unfortunate, but inseparable part of cycling. Whether it's a team you support, or one that you're indifferent about, it's never good sign for the sport when financial side causes projects to disappear all of a sudden. Because, unless a new team takes their place, it's always the riders (and staff) who draw the short straw and end up losing their jobs. Or even worse - their careers.

The situation is already far from comfortable at the road cycling world with two established ProTeams set to disappear at the end of this year (Equipo Kern Pharma and Flanders - Baloise). But the peloton will adjust and keep moving on, as this situation doesn't immediately affect the top echelons.

A couple closures and cross-country eco-system could fall apart

Similarly, two mountain bike teams will also fold in 2026. However in the case of cross-country, the entire top echelon consists of roughly 30 riders. Without Cannondale Factory Racing and Lapierre PXR Racing, it'll be even less.

The positive is Decathlon Ford stepping in to fill some of the void left by Cannondale in men's pack with the signings of ex-Cannondale riders Luca Martin and Cole Punchard, but the closures once again placed a spotlight on the fragility of cross-country mountain biking's entire financial eco-system.

There's already very limited prize pool allocated per UCI guidelines - only top-10 in a World Cup race earn prize money ranging €3,500 for winner to €200 for 10th rider - leaving most of the financial responsibility to team sponsors; mostly bike manufacturers using the World Cup races as a platform to advertise their products.

And in order to do that successfully, you need riders who can consistently compete for the top-10 positions... and so the circle closes.

This has already brought about implications for cyclocross world where there's 3-4 teams who monopolize most of the top positions for themselves, and only individuals can break the deadlock.

UCI connects all disciplines

UCI seems to have understood that, at the current pace, mountain bike teams were destined to keep gambling on a limited pool of potential sponsors forever. The latest change of UCI points system has the potential to create a brand new connection between all the disciplines which, at the moment, function relatively independently.

The conclusion of UCI's meeting during the 2026 World Championships in Montréal is that, from 2027 onwards, UCI points scored in selected range of events by a rider will count towards his team's UCI Team ranking.

The most points will be awarded at the UCI World Championships with 300 UCI points available on top of a rainbow jersey. Furthermore 200 UCI points will be awarded to the winner of each UCI World Cup round.

Additionally, Regional Games (e.g. Asian Games) also count towards the total with UCI 40 points for winner.

This change concerns both men's and women's elite categories. There'll be the same amount of points on offer to top finishers with differences only from 16th position down due to different startlist sizes at the moment.

Full chart of how the points will be distributed can be found below:

A perfect opportunity for road teams, but it comes with a 'but'...

It's not hard to see why would road teams look into a possibility of including a rider with off-road palmares in their plans for next season(s). Especially those involved or threatened by relegation battle, as well as ProTeams chasing wild card invitations.

Let's take a few examples to understand how lucrative it must be for a road team to recruit such a mountain bike rider.

• The winner of men's 2026 World Cup rankings Luca Martin had a superb start to the season with two XCO victories and further three second places. Even though his performances dropped off a bit in the second half of the season, he'd still collect 1,225 UCI points this season.
• European champion Charlie Aldridge had quite the opposite season with a slower start, but a strong finish. He'd have finished the year with 676 UCI points. What's more, the 25-year-old Brit is currently reported without a contract after Cannondale's closure.
• And for example Tom Pidcock, in his just two mountain bike starts earned full 500 UCI points, whereas fellow road professional Adrien Boichis scored 1,065 UCI points, even though he also wrapped up his MTB season after World Championships. This should be an incentive for teams with talented mountain bikers to support their adventures.
• As for the women's side, Puck Pieterse scored 305 UCI points despite a lackluster campaign. But it's important to note that Pieterse would already bring 1,300 UCI points from her cyclocross block.

This all sounds beautiful, but there is one important asterisk. For the rider's points to count towards a UCI Team Ranking, it is necessary for them to rank among the team's "active scorers" in road ranking. This means that only the best 20 riders of a men's team and 8 riders of a women's team count towards the ranking.

It is an obstacle, but not insurmountable for most scenarios. Successful road racers such as Pidcock or Pieterse have no issue finding their way into the select group. In fact, even Boichis on the stacked Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe is currently 19th within the team hierarchy.

Of course, for top teams such as UAE Team Emirates - XRG, it might not be worth the sacrifice, giving up one active team spot to add ~300 UCI points to their total. But for a mid-pack ProTeam fighting for a spot in the top-30 of team ranking like Solution Tech-NIPPO-Rali, those 300 points would have put them in the safe zone a long time ago.

So what is clear is that a huge amount of points are suddenly in the play for road teams. Not only in MTB, but also cyclocross, track and gravel events. But they're not easy to access.

The top riders are often paid generously at their MTB teams, might not wish to compromise their preparation by competing on road, or might simply lack the quality to performed at enough level to clear the "top-20 condition".

The question is therefore not "where" but "how" to unlock a new source of UCI points. And it's obvious that the cross-discipline riders could potentially become a decisive factor for the future seasons.

One of the ways would be to find a rider from a smaller cycling nation who can secure enough road points via National and Continental Championships, such as Martin Vidaurre from Chile, but there are more thorough approaches to this matter and it'll be exciting to follow as teams tackle this challenge.