The 2022 season will be a year of World Tour status.

Lotto Soudal, Cofidis, Arkea Samsic, Intermarche Wantigovert, Movistar, and Bike Exchange Jayco already have wins under their belts and are starting to rack up the ranking points that will ultimately determine their fate.

Racing in late January and early February will be a faint memory by the end of the year, and the big teams will quickly kick into gear once the World Tour calendar begins.

Licenses for 2023 and beyond will be awarded based on ranking points at the end of the current three-year cycle at the end of this year. 18 World Tour spots are available and 21 teams have expressed interest, so the team with the most UCI World Ranking points over the past three seasons points over the past three seasons will be selected.

Lotto Soudal and Cofidis start 2022 in the "relegation zone" behind Alpecin Phoenix (9th) and Arkea Samsic (18th) in the second division; from 17th to 14th are Intermarché, Israel Premier Tech and Movistar, Bike Exchange Jayco, all of whom are in danger of being involved in a relegation battle.

For these teams, there was no room for an easy season. Movistar, Arkea Samsic, and Lotto Soudal are currently 2-3-4 in the 2022 UCI team standings, behind leader UAE Team Emirates.

Alejandro Valverde, 41, is the driving force behind the Spanish team, winning the Challenge Mallorca, finishing second and sixth in the others, fifth overall in the Volta a Valenciana, and fourth with teammate Enric Mas. Teammate Enric Mas finished fourth. Given Mass's Grand Tour pedigree, it is hard to imagine Movistar struggling, but if Valverde runs near his best in his final season, Movistar will automatically be out of trouble.

Arkea Samsic, meanwhile, is off to the perfect start in his bid for World Tour status, having already secured invitations to all of this year's World Tour races, thanks to a favorable combination of second place in the 2021 second division ranking and the elimination of Qhubeka-NextxHash. Like Movistar, the only win came at GP La Marseillaise by Amaury Capio, but there have been many top-10 finishes, with nine riders, including Warren Barguil and Elie Jezbeil, scoring over 200 points.

Lotto Soudal entered the season at the bottom of the World Tour, nearly 1,000 points out of the safety zone, but he started the season strong on the opening day of the Saudi Arabian Tour with Talisman and Caleb Yuan. In an inexperienced team, he was considered the key to the Belgian team's fortunes. However, other players have already stepped up.

21-year-old Maxime Van Gils won a stage and the overall at the Tour of Saudi Arabia, while 19-year-old Arnaud de Lee won the Trofeo Palma at Challenge Mallorca ahead of the big-name sprinters. In addition, Tim Wellens had a strong run in Mallorca, including a win at the Trofeo Tramuntana, leading the team to a perfect start.

Bora-Hansgrohe, sixth in the three-year cycle, is fifth this season behind Cofidis, another World Tour team that started the season in the relegation zone. For the team led by Cedric Vasseur, Benjamin Thomas won a stage and the overall at Etoile de Besseges, and Brian Coquard won the sprint in the same race.

Ineos Grenadiers, Quick Step Alfa Vinyl, and Trek Segafredo follow the top three in the rankings, while Peter Sagan's Total Energy started the three-year cycle in 21st place, but is too far away to realistically challenge for promotion.

Intermarché Wanty-Gobert was led by Biniam Girmay's win at the Trofeo Alcudia in Mallorca, with Kobe Goussens also earning a valuable placing. 21-year-old Eritrean rider Girmay will continue to develop and have a breakthrough campaign Gilmey will be extremely important if he is to continue his development and have a breakthrough campaign.

Bike Exchange Jayco was 12th, with newcomer Dylan Groenewegen taking two stage wins in the Tour of Saudi Arabia and Michael Matthews rounding out the top 10 in Challenge Mallorca.

Of the teams in the relegation zone, Israel Premier Tech has had the slowest start, currently in 15th place.

At this point, it is still early days and it seems foolish to read too much into the points won and lost. However, come the end of the season, literally every point will matter.

The battle will only intensify from here. The Tour of Oman, Tour de la Provence, Volta ao Algarve, and Ruta del Sol are all coming up, and the UAE will be marking the beginning of a lucrative World Tour campaign later this month.

There are bigger battles ahead, but the tone of this battle is set and all the teams involved are fighting.