Raúl Banqueri

27 posts
I’m a Spanish data journalist who made a name for myself in the cycling world by publishing and analysing a secret ranking. I love making visualisations of complex data so that people can understand it quickly.
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The Giro Rewards Breakaways with Israel Securing 2024 Wildcards | UCI May Ranking Analysis

This Giro d'Italia has been the first Grand Tour after the change in the scoring system, which has increased the amount of UCI points distributed in Giro, Tour and Vuelta. While the podium was once again occupied by the three big teams (Jumbo, Ineos and UAE), other modest teams such as Jayco and Israel made the most of the race, benefitting from several successful breakaways. The points won by Israel are particularly important, as it gives them an almost unassailable lead of 2500 points over TotalEnergies in the fight for the 2024 WorldTour wildcards.
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EF Education-Easypost Prosper as Jayco-Alula Struggle Again | UCI April Ranking Analysis

The season of classics and one-week races has been dominated by a few players, as 19 out of 21 WorldTour races (90.5%) have been won by Jumbo, UAE, Alpecin or QuickStep. Despite this, teams such as Trek or EF Education-Easypost have surprised positively, while others such as Jayco-Alula and, above all, Astana continue to struggle to get results. In this article, we will analyse the teams' main sources of points and how their performance has changed compared to last season.
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Jumbo and UAE in a league of their Own whilst Astana Crumble | UCI March Ranking Analysis

The WorldTour calendar kicked off in earnest this March with all the stars of cycling appearing in races. This leaves a ranking that is much more representative of the strengths of the various teams compared to this time in February, with a few standout teams both positively and negatively. In addition, we will address the consequences of the new UCI regulations for Grand Tour wildcards, which give greater importance to sporting merit.
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UAE and Jumbo fight for Top Spot whilst De Lie Boosts Lotto | UCI Ranking Analysis

The opening weekend has closed a very intense month of competition. Although some still think that the season starts at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the reality is that the entirety of February is one of the busiest months of competition. In this article, we will try to analyse the initial trends among the teams, separating those that will fight to win the 2023 UCI ranking and those that have started less strongly.
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2023 Pro Cycling Calendar

The 2023 race calendar breaks with tradition by moving the World Championships to early August, between the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. This will also be the year in which an extensive calendar of races outside Europe returns, and several races will be born that will make the season more interesting. In this article, we will analyse all the changes and enable you to download the race calendar to follow the frenetic activity of the season more easily.
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The New WorldTour Points System Explained

Following complaints from numerous teams about the WorldTour's promotion and relegation system, the UCI has published new regulations with significant changes. The rule amendment has been published less than a month before the start of the new 2023-2025 triennium, whose cumulative ranking will determine which 18 teams will be part of the WorldTour in 2026-2028.
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B&B Hotels Crumbles, Leaving Mark Cavendish with Few Options

The "total collapse" of B&B Hotels - KTM in the middle of December has left its existing or prospective riders with practically no runway to find alternative landing spots. Many WorldTeams have already finalised their budget for 2023 and seven WorldTeams have even reached the 30 rider limit, making it impossible for them to bring in more riders. Below, we take a look at which teams do have room to take advantage of last-minute bargains.
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The Final Relegation Battle 2022 Analysis | Sink or Swim

The exciting 2022 season has officially ended, although we have known for a few weeks that Lotto Soudal and Israel - Premier Tech would be the two relegated teams. Therefore, in this final article we are going to focus on analysing the keys of the relegation battle, thanks to a series of graphs that will help us understand how each team has faced this challenge.
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Lotto Soudal Gives Up and will be Relegated with Israel-Premier Tech | Relegation Battle

The WorldTour calendar has concluded and we can already safely say that Lotto Soudal and Israel-Premier Tech will be the two relegated teams if the UCI implements its regulations*. Unfortunately, the relegation battle did not make it to the Tour de Langkawi alive, after a disastrous management by Lotto Soudal in the last few weeks. Although they were unlucky, it seems that the Belgians gave up too soon, not fielding Caleb Ewan in the last month of competition and even announcing the dismissal of CEO John Lelangue when the team still had a chance of salvation.