US teams will be scrambling for UCI points in 2015 in order to see themselves qualify to take place in the World Championships Team Time Trial, which takes place on home soil in Richmond, Virginia in September.

The US teams will need to make it into the top five overall in the America Tour rankings in order to qualify for the race. this will mark a change for the US teams, who do not normally target the overall in the America Tour, as they put more of an emphasis in performing well in the Tours of Utah, Colorado, Alberta and California.

"In general, not many US teams pay any attention to the UCI America Tour," said Optum Pro Cycling Performance Director Jonas Carney. "We, however, have wanted to qualify for the world team time trial championships, so we have kept an eye on it and have been able to qualify all three years by mainly focusing on the North American calendar.

"If our goal was to win the overall, we'd probably spend more time racing south of the border," Carney said. "The overall just isn't an objective. If we won, it would be great and we'd make a big deal of it, but we're not going to chase points."

In the last nine seasons, only three riders on US teams have won the America Tour: Svein Tuft, riding for Symmetrics, took the title for the 2007 season, and Rory Sutherland won in 2012 while riding for UnitedHealthcare. Janier Acevedo, riding for Jamis-Hagens Berman in 2013, was the last rider from an American team to win the overall rankings.

Team SmartStop’s Jure Kocjan was leading the overall, but the recent Vuelta a Kobi has seen Oscar Sevilla take the lead. This happens as there are more races South of the border, in Central and South America, which the US teams don’t target, so they don’t get enough points to win the overall.

Carney hopes the increase in US races can help swing the points back in the US teams’ favour.

"It's great that there are so many new UCI races in Canada and the US now," Optum's Carney said. "A few years ago, there were very few UCI races in North America, and it was very difficult for US teams to be competitive in the UCI America Tour without spending lots of time in South America, Central America or the Caribbean."