Licences and categories: who may race where.

The UCI licence

UCI Regulations Part 1 (version on 1 July 2026) defines a licence as an identity document that confirms the holder agrees to respect the UCI's constitution and regulations and authorises them to take part in cycling events (article 1.1.001). The main rules:

• No licence, no race. No one without the required licence may take part in an event organised, sanctioned or supervised by the UCI, its continental confederations, its member federations or their affiliates. Riding without one leads to exclusion or disqualification and other penalties (article 1.1.002, text modified 1 February 2026).
• Issued nationally. National federations issue licences according to criteria they set (article 1.1.006).
• One calendar year. A licence is valid from 1 January to 31 December, in every country with a UCI member federation (article 1.1.008).
• One federation. A rider may hold a licence from only one national federation (article 1.1.009). Since 23 October 2019 every licence holder also has a permanent UCI ID (article 1.1.009 bis).
• Not only riders. Licences are also required for cycling-for-all participants, motor pacers, riders' agents, team staff such as managers, coaches, doctors, mechanics and drivers, officials such as commissaires and para-cycling classifiers, organisers and race vehicle drivers (article 1.1.010).
• Cycling for all. A cycling-for-all licence is for leisure cyclists and gives access only to events on the cycling-for-all calendar (article 1.1.039).

UCI age categories

For events on the international calendar, a rider's category is the year of the event minus the year of birth, so it depends on the age reached during the calendar year (article 1.1.034, text modified 1 February 2026). Cyclo-cross is the exception, under article 5.1.001.

Articles 1.1.036 and 1.1.037 add some conditions. Masters status is for riders aged 30 and over who elect it; it is closed to riders on UCI-registered teams and limits them to masters events. The junior and under-23 categories are not used in disciplines where riders count as elite at that age or younger. Para-cyclists are riders classified under the UCI's functional classification system (Part 16, chapter V); see para-cycling.

Which disciplines use women's under-23? The 2026 rule lets the women's under-23 category apply unless other regulations say otherwise. Which disciplines use it today is not something we could confirm.

Minimum ages for international events

Only riders aged 17 or over holding an international-category licence may ride events on the international calendar (article 1.1.035). The exception is that riders aged 16 or under may take part in international trials, BMX Racing, BMX Freestyle, indoor cycling and para-cycling events. Riders in events using electrically power assisted cycles (EPACs) must be 19 or over.

Registered teams

Article 1.1.041 lists the teams registered with the UCI: UCI WorldTeams, UCI Women's WorldTeams, UCI ProTeams, UCI Women's ProTeams, UCI continental and women's continental teams, UCI mountain bike teams, UCI track teams, and UCI cyclo-cross and cyclo-cross professional teams.

A national example: USA Cycling categories

Some national federations add ability categories as well. USA Cycling says every rider starts in the Novice category and can work up to Category 1. Its 2020 membership guide made Novice the entry level for all disciplines, replacing Category 5 in road, track and cyclo-cross and Category 3 in mountain biking, with the old and new names interchangeable during 2020. The same guide counts junior members as racing age 18 and under.

USA Cycling's upgrade policy update, effective 1 January 2025, requires at least five races before a rider can leave Novice in any discipline except track, and added a points matrix for mountain biking based on placing and field size.

Policy VIII (revised 7 July 2026)

• Only races permitted by USA Cycling, another UCI-affiliated federation or a partner organisation count towards upgrades, and results count for 36 months.
• Points use a rider's overall finish in the whole field, and a rider starts each new category at zero points.
• Points that juniors and youth riders earn in junior or youth races do not force them to upgrade. Points they earn in elite or under-23 road, track or cyclo-cross races can, but only as far as Category 3.
• Riders may ask to be downgraded, but never to Novice. USA Cycling may downgrade a rider for unsafe riding or lack of ability.
• A "professional" is a member of a UCI-registered team in that discipline; in mountain biking, "Pro" is an ability category.

The points needed for each USA Cycling upgrade are published as graphics on its website, which we could not read, so the thresholds are not given here.

Other countries

British Cycling's road category pages could not be opened during our research, so its category rules are not given here. Every national federation's own handbook is the authority for its categories.