Lotto-Intermarché exploits rule change and skips well-known WorldTour race
Lotto-Intermarché will compete in all WorldTour races this year, except for the Tour de Romandie. Due to a recent regulatory change from the UCI, the merged team can remove the Swiss stage race from its schedule.
To ensure the best cycling teams take part in the most prestigious races, the UCI management committee decided to tighten the rules. All WorldTeams are now required to start in the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a España, and the five Monuments: Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the Tour of Lombardy.
This has always been the case, but there is an important change: starting from 2026, WorldTeams may skip one one-day race or stage race from the WorldTour per year. However, there are additional conditions: no more than four WorldTeams may skip the same race, and WorldTeams can only skip a particular race once during the 2026-2028 cycle.
In other words: Lotto-Intermarché may not skip the Tour de Romandie two or three times during 2026, 2027, and 2028. If a WorldTeam decides to remove a specific WorldTour race from its program, the freed-up spot on the start list will be offered as an extra wildcard to a ProTeam.
What were the 'old' rules?
Cycling teams with a WorldTeam license were required to participate in WorldTour races until the end of 2025, but with a caveat. Mandatory participation only applied to races that were part of the WorldTour in 2016.
“A UCI WorldTeam must participate with a team in UCI WorldTour races. All WorldTeams must take part in races that were part of the UCI WorldTour in 2016. For other UCI WorldTour races, UCI WorldTeams may participate on a voluntary basis,” is stated in article 2.15.127 of the UCI regulations.
Article 2.15.127 also applies to the following WorldTour races: the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Strade Bianche, Tour of Bruges, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Eschborn-Frankfurt, and the Gree-Tour of Guangxi.
