'People love the Champions League'; why WorldTour promotion could be gamechanger for Uno-X and their stars
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Follow us on GoogleJonas Abrahamsen managed to follow up his good Tour performance in the 2024 edition last year with a stage win in Toulouse. On that footing, the 30-year-old Norwegian is all too eager to continue next year, after he didn't quite pan out last spring. IDLProCycling had a conversation with Abrahamsen.
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These days in Trondheim, Uno-X is holding the open and team days towards 2026, which will be anything but a special year in the team's history. For the first time the Norwegian formation is part of the WorldTour, partly due to Abrahamsen's good performance in recent years.
'It is very important for Norwegian - and by extension Scandinavian - cycling,' points out the hard rider. 'People love the Champions League, the highest level. There's a lot of talk about it, in Norway.'
Abrahamsen thinks the entire Uno-X team can hitch a ride on the move. ''It's very good for the rest of the team. The past two years we rode one grand tour, but now a lot more riders can ride a grand tour. And that's good for the development of the team. Our calendar expands a lot, whereas before we had to pick our races.''
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Abrahamsen wants to go for Tour AND Vuelta, but focus on classics first
It also makes a difference for Abrahamsen himself, "I would be up for a combination of Tour and Vuelta. To include the Giro, as a classc type of rider, is probably a bit too much of a good thing. Then you do the classics, Giro ánd Tour.'
'So my preference would be the Vuelta, but first I want to show myself in the classics. Also in races like Strade Bianche and Milan-Sanremo, but definitely Flanders and Roubaix. I'm really going to those races with a lot of ambition.'
In the Tour de France , he sees slightly fewer opportunities than last season. 'In the last two weeks I do see some opportunities for us punchy riders. Which stage suits me best, I can't say right now. But I think I'm going to focus a bit more on the last two weeks, as I did - unintentionally - this year.'
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Tom van der Salm (27) comes from the charming town of Zeilberg (Deurne) in the Netherlands and has been working as editor-in-chief & journalist at IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, In de Leiderstrui, since 2019. He travels with the peloton from the Tour de France to the AlUla Tour and from the World Championships in Rwanda or Canada to the Zilvermeercross in Mol. In his spare time he enjoys playing football, mountain biking, running, walking with his Labrador/Stabyhoun, investing, holidays, (specialty) beers, reading, cooking and watching sports & documentaries!
Contact: [email protected]
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Latest Comments
- Eight riders told to go for stages, and nobody gets one—hard to know what the plan was there. It’ll be interesting to see whether they pick a clear leader next time.bikebuffj10-11-2026
- Was Bernal’s 20th place really their best GC result? I thought he might have finished higher. Either way, it sounds like a rough Tour for the whole team.gearguru3310-11-2026
- Five days in breaks with no stage win is a painful stat. The team had chances, but they need to turn those opportunities into results.julien10-11-2026
- The Onley Vuelta example makes sense: a team with someone to rally around often looks much more cohesive. Hopefully INEOS can build on that rather than expecting a quick return to the Sky years.cadencekingm10-11-2026
- Thomas is right about the ambiguity. Eight riders all chasing stages can end up pulling in different directions, even if nobody’s deliberately working against anyone. They need a clearer plan once the GC leaders are out.robert6510-11-2026
- What a mess. The report makes it sound as though nobody properly explained the decision, and that’s hard to defend.jennifer1910-11-2026
- I’m still learning the rules: does moving left in a sprint automatically bring a penalty, or does it depend on whether the other rider is blocked? It sounds like Brand wasn’t impeded here.patriciaw10-11-2026
- A final decision still needs a proper explanation. If the federation’s complaint goes nowhere, I hope the officials at least review how they handled the riders afterwards.michael5410-11-2026
- Fair play to Lucinda for saying Marie had won fair and square. That kind of sportsmanship matters, especially after such a controversial decision.raceready710-11-2026
- Schreiber beat Brand on the road, so the jury needed to explain clearly why that slight deviation warranted relegation. Being cut off before she could give her account sounds appalling.lindae10-11-2026