That was followed by Derek Gee demanding to get out of his contract with Israel–Premier Tech and, most recently, Juan Ayuso leaving UAE Team Emirates–XRG. Reports suggest that he will be signed by Lidl-Trek. In addition, unsubstantiated reports and rumours suggest that top sprinter Biniam Girmay will leave his Intermarché-Wanty team, where he is signed up to ride until 2028.
In the meantime, there has been a flurry of more traditional deals involving important riders that will have consequences for their former and future teams. One of these big deals has 23-year-old sprinter Olav Kooij moving from Visma–Lease a Bike to the French team Decathlon CMA CGM (formerly Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale). He has racked up 11 wins so far this year, including two stages and the green jersey in the recent Tour of Britain. He’ll be travelling to Decathlon with Visma teammate and excellent domestique Tiesj Benoot.
Visma also lost Dylan van Baarle, who was outstanding in the Vuelta and will be riding for Soudal Quick-Step next year, under its new name, T-Rex Quick-Step. They have also splurged, acquiring the all-rounders Jasper Stuyven (from Lidl-Trek) and Filippo Zana (Jayco AlUla), the sprinter Albert Dainese (Tudor) and Jasper Philipsen’s main lead-out rider, Edward Planckaert.
Decathlon is the world’s largest sporting goods retailer, and it has been spending its money hand over fist to upgrade the squad. Its eight acquisitions so far also include the excellent time trial rider Dan Hoole (from Lidl-Trek) and the 23-year-old American Matthew Riccitello, winner of the white jersey for best young rider in the recent Vuelta Ciclista a España, where he also finished fifth in the GC. On the other hand, it lost the excellent all-rounder Bruno Armirail to Visma, who will no doubt use his stamina and legs to replace van Baarle.
The Swiss Pro Team Q36.5, which is having a banner year, due primarily to Tom Pidcock’s third-place finish in the Vuelta, has also been flashing its credit card, signing the climbers Eddie Dunbar and Chris Harper (both Jayco AlUla) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious). That’s a trio of heavyweight riders, so it appears that, buoyed by Pidcock’s Vuelta success, the team will attack the Grand Tours next year and make a concerted push for promotion to WorldTour status. They also acquired two excellent veteran riders from Alpecin-Deceuninck, Quinten Hermans and Xandro Meurisse.
And what’s going on at Mathieu van der Poel’s team? Alpecin-Deceuninck has so far lost seven riders, including the very good one-day riders and domestiques Gianni Vermeersch (to Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe, where he’ll be invaluable to Evenepoel) and Timo Kielich (to Visma–Lease a Bike, where he will help Jonas Vingegaard). But so far, Alpecin has only promoted three development riders to replace them. However, 19-year-old Senna Remijn looks very promising. He finished second in the U23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège and third in the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs.
Speaking of promising promotions, Lidl-Trek has promoted the winner of Monday’s U23 ITT World Championship, Jakob Söderqvist, to its WorldTour squad. He looks like a future powerhouse. But with Stuyven and Hoole leaving, they still have some holes to fill. Will they fill one with Ayuso? And where will the 24-year-old rising French star Kévin Vauquelin wind up, even if his Arkéa–B&B Hotels team manages to find a sponsor and survives to ride another few years?
Last year, he won the team’s first (and only) Grand Tour stage and this year he has accounted for five of its nine victories. Vauquelin also finished second in La Flèche Wallonne, 10 seconds behind Tadej Pogačar, was second in the Tour de Suisse and rode a very brave race to finish seventh in the Tour de France. Rumours have him joining INEOS Grenadiers. We’ll see.
