Making the WorldTour a world tour

OneCycling, are you listening? We want a return of the Vuelta a Mexico and a new South African stage race and lots of other stuff.

Almost 9 in 10 WorldTour race days are in Europe. Image: A.S.O./Oman Cycling Association/Thomas Maheux

The WorldTour. The Tour of the World.

The best cyclists in the world racing in the best races all over the world. Except there’s a problem. It’s not really a WorldTour is it?

This year, the men’s UCI WorldTour comprises 6 race days in Oceania, 13 in Asia, 2 in North America, none in either Africa and South America and a whopping 142 in Europe.

Hardly a WorldTour.

Obviously there are reasons for this. Europe is cycling’s epicentre, it’s historical home. It’s where the sport is most popular - although perhaps this is shifting. It’s where the money comes from - perhaps this is changing too. It’s where some races have existed for more than a century and continue to do so.

However, the UCI persist in calling cycling’s premier league a WorldTour, so what could it look like if it really was?

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For 2026, reports are pointing towards big changes in the cycling calendar as the One Cycling reform looks set to take place. There will be a new schedule of races, with the best riders pitted against one another and a grand finale in Saudi Arabia at the end of the season, according to Escape.

There are also reports of an African race joining the One Cycling series, which would be extremely positive for African cycling. But what if the schedule of races at the top of men’s cycling was truly global? That could be a good use of the reported €300m of funding coming from Saudi Arabia.

Below is my best attempt at globalising the WorldTour schedule, giving a more equal balance across the continents, while keeping cycling’s European identity. The European calendar remains dominant but reduces to 127 race days. There are 9 days in Africa, 26 in Asia, 16 in North America, 6 in Oceania and 5 in South America.

I’m isolating this to the men’s WorldTour purely for simplicity. Many of the new races added to the men’s schedule could equally be added to the women’s.

I’ve removed some races, upgraded others and dreamed up some entirely new events. I’ve made an attempt at making it make some sort of sense logistically, breaking the season down into geographical sections and squeezing the European season into the European spring and summer.