A major turning point in the race for the 2026 WorldTour licenses: Jayco-AlUla and Liv-AlUla-Jayco, the Australian men's and women's teams, do not appear on the initial list of teams that have submitted full documentation to the UCI for the next three years.

According to Escape Collective, the main reason is the lack of the necessary bank guarantees, estimated at between €3 and €4 million, equivalent to 25% of the riders' and staff's salaries. Sources close to the team are confident that the situation will be resolved in the coming days.

A spokesperson for the Jayco-AlUla team briefly commented, calling it "a bureaucratic issue that we hope to resolve soon," but would neither confirm nor deny that the issue specifically concerns bank guarantees.

The UCI has however clarified that the teams not present on the initial list have not definitively lost the possibility of obtaining a WorldTour license: 'They still have the possibility to regularize their position before the end of the registration process'.

The situation could, however, have significant repercussions: UCI regulations provide that in these cases riders can terminate their contracts early, although this right lapses if the team subsequently obtains registration.

The final verdict will come on December 10, when the UCI will publish the definitive list of teams registered for 2026. It is worth noting that Jayco-AlUla finished 2025 in 16th place in the men's ranking with 19 victories (7 WorldTour), while Liv-AlUla-Jayco finished eighth among the women with 5 victories (3 WorldTour).

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