An exhilarating 2026 road season has reached its conclusion with the winners of the UCI World Ranking for women’s teams not finalised until the final weekend of racing. Last Sunday, UAE Team L’Imad’s Maeva Squiban won the Chrono des Nations in France, with her teammate Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini in sixth place. Earlier in the week, Elisa Longo Borghini, Gasparrini, Mavi Garcia and Karlijn Swinkels featured in the top 10 of Veneto Women, in Italy. Those results helped the Emirati team pass FDJ United - Suez to snatch victory at the eleventh hour.
With the standings established by adding the points for the eight best riders in the team, UAE Team L’Imad claimed 22,262.99 points to take their first-ever victory in the UCI World Ranking for teams, after finishing behind FDJ United - Suez last year.
After a neck-and-neck battle over many months, Demi Vollering (winner of the Women Elite individual UCI World Ranking) and her teammates led the standings into the final week of competition, but they eventually came short by fewer than 300 points, scoring 22,000.33 points to take second place.
The top three of the UCI World Ranking for women’s teams is completed by Team SD Worx - Protime, who ruled the standings for four consecutive years from 2021 to 2024. The Dutch team notably benefitted from the performances of their three stars Lorena Wiebes, Anna van der Breggen and Lotte Kopecky, who finished respectively 5th, 6th and 7th in the individual UCI World Ranking.
Across the 2026 season, 59 teams from all continents scored points in the Women Team UCI World Ranking.
Longo Borghini’s consistency and Blasi’s rise
UAE Team L’Imad registered the highest collective tally thanks to their eight best riders all scoring over 1,000 points, from Paula Blasi’s 5,201.33 points to her Spanish mentor Margarita Garcia’s 1,075 points. The pairing proved vital to their team’s success from the very beginning of the year, as Garcia finished second at the Santos Women’s Tour Down Under in January, ahead of Blasi. Dominika Włodarczyk finished fourth overall to further highlight UAE Team L’Imad’s strength in depth.
Just weeks later, it was Longo Borghini’s turn to rise to the summit as she ruled the UAE Tour Women for the second successive year. The Italian star was the team’s second best scorer this season (5,109.33 points), fewer than 100 points behind Blasi. Ahead of the 2026 season, Longo Borghini was already an established campionissima and she didn’t disappoint this year.
At the other end of the experience spectrum, Blasi celebrated her 21st birthday mid-February. Despite showing glimpses of her precocious talent last year, no-one could have predicted the waves she’d make this year as she took the UCI Women’s WorldTour by storm.
The Spaniard herself said in the spring that she was still to make sense of her abilities and her potential on the bike, after she switched from triathlon to cycling in 2024. A victory in the Amstel Gold Race, followed by top five results at La Flèche Wallonne Femmes (third) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes (fifth), revealed significant clues about her endless possibilities. Demanding and punchy classics sure suit her. Stage races as well…
From the Ardennes, the Catalan rising star swiftly shifted to La Vuelta España Femenina by Carrefour.es. Her crowning as one of the very best riders in the world came on top of L’Angliru, host of the final stage of the Spanish event and witness to Blasi’s conquest of La Roja, the overall leader’s jersey.
Versatile leaders for all sorts of challenges
After follow-up victories at the CIC-Tour Féminin des Pyrénées and the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Femenina, Blasi was ready to face the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, where she reunited with Longo Borghini (fourth at the Giro d’Italia Women after winning the final stage) to spearhead an impressive UAE Team L’Imad on Swiss and French roads.
When the field thinned out due to a combination of racing intensity and the steepness of the slopes, the Emirati team regularly had three riders at the front: Longo Borghini (third on the final overall standings), Blasi (fifth) and Włodarczyk (seventh). Naturally, they ruled the team standings of the Tour – further illustration of UAE Team L’Imad’s collective strength – which the world witnessed once again at the UCI Road World Championships, where Longo Borghini and Włodarczyk featured in the top 10 of both the individual time trial and the road race.
All in all, UAE Team L’Imad claimed 30 wins in 2026, with Squiban topping and tailing the victory list, from the Spanish Trofeo Marratxi-Felanitx in January to the Chrono des Nations in October. Back in March, Karlijn Swinkels ruled the Trofeo Alfredo Banda - Comune di Cittiglio in Italy. Seven months later, Lara Gillespie came second at the Tour of Chongming Island in China, the final UCI Women’s WorldTour event of the season.
Such ability to shine on all terrain with a varied cast of leaders propelled UAE Team L’Imad to the summit of the UCI World Ranking. Can they maintain this position in 2027? The cards are already reshuffled as Blasi heads to Movistar Team, 10th in the 2026 UCI World Ranking.