{"id":204167,"date":"2025-11-12T16:11:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T16:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=204167"},"modified":"2025-11-12T16:11:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T16:11:39","slug":"uncertainty-remains-for-teams-and-riders-as-2026-draws-near","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2025\/11\/12\/uncertainty-remains-for-teams-and-riders-as-2026-draws-near\/","title":{"rendered":"Turmoil and Uncertainty Remain for Teams and Riders as 2026 Draws Near"},"content":{"rendered":"

I doubt if there\u2019s ever been a cycling post-season as uncertain, and even inscrutable, as this one. This uncertainty concerns three teams that have had sufficiently successful seasons to ride on the WorldTour next year: the current Pro teams Lotto and Israel\u2013Premier Tech and the WorldTour team Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty. There is one main question currently surrounding these teams: What\u2019s going on?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When will the merger be official?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For example, what\u2019s going on with the merger between Lotto and Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty that was reportedly approved by the UCI? If you go on the websites of the two teams, here<\/a> and here<\/a>, you\u2019ll find not a single word about it. No word either about the fate of the Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty riders still waiting for a contract, including the fate of their star sprinter Biniam Girmay.<\/a> However, since the team did not apply for a license for next year, it will almost certainly disappear into a Lotto-Intermarch\u00e9 team. But as of this writing, they are like Schr\u00f6dinger’s cat, both dead and alive until an announcement is made. Call them Intermarch\u00e9-Schr\u00f6dinger.<\/p>\n

The situation has provoked the ire of Adam Hansen, the outspoken head of the riders\u2019 union CPA, who accused the not-yet-official new team of dishonesty and of holding the riders hostage. He told Sporza<\/em><\/a>, “As a WorldTour team you can have a maximum of 30 riders under contract. Together both teams have 43. That is a dream situation from the point of view of the new team, because they can just choose who they want to continue with and who they don’t. But from the riders’ point of view, it’s unfair because they are being held hostage by this situation. As long as they have an ongoing contract, they cannot leave the team. And so they have to keep waiting for there to be news.”<\/p>\n

He went on to say that he had organized a meeting with the UCI and the managers of both teams and demanded a list of the riders who would have to leave. Then he spoke to the affected riders, who had not been informed, and neither had their agents. \u201cThat was tough,\u201d he said. \u201cRiders trust their agents, but the team was not only unfair to the rider, but also to the agents.”<\/p>\n

Hansen then mentioned an unnamed rider who had found a spot with another team but was not released from his contract with Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty. “That indicates that Lotto and Intermarch\u00e9 were not so honest with the UCI and us when they showed that list of dropouts,\u201d Hansen charged. But he admitted that Belgian labor law trumped UCI regulations and “allows the teams to wait until, for example, December 31 to let the riders know something. That’s the sad truth.”<\/p>\n

\"Team<\/a>
What\u2019s going on with the merger between Lotto and Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty that was reportedly approved by the UCI? \u00a9 Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Too many riders, not enough openings<\/strong><\/h2>\n

“There were too many riders under contract with both teams,” Dries Smets of the cycling agency Wasserman Cycling told Sporza<\/em><\/a>. The company represents Lotte Kopecky, Tim Merlier and Julian Alaphilippe, among other riders. “Solutions are being sought, but it’s not nice. We are at the beginning of November, the holidays are almost over and riders are starting to prepare for the new season. But several riders are still living in uncertainty and hope to get clarity soon. They are impatiently waiting for a solution.”<\/p>\n

Because of the disappearances of the two WorldTour teams Ark\u00e9a\u2013B&B Hotels and Intermarch\u00e9-Wanty, \u201cthere are 60 fewer places available on the labor market and that seriously increases the pressure,\u201d Smets said. “At the moment, about 60 to 70 riders are still looking for a place, while there are still a maximum of 8 to 10 vacancies. So dozens of riders will fall by the wayside.”<\/p>\n

Quo vadis Israel\u2013Premier Tech?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

And what about the team formerly known as Israel\u2013Premier Tech, which came under pressure from many sides, including its Canadian sponsor Premier Tech, to change its name after pro-Palestinian protestors disrupted the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, and shut down the final stage. The team, owned by Canadian-Israeli property developer Sylvan Adams, also faced smaller protests during the other two Grand Tours, the Giro d\u2019Italia and the Tour de France.<\/a> As a result, Adams stepped back from his day-to-day involvement with the team in October and no longer speaks on its behalf. His climbdown enabled the name change.<\/p>\n

But now Premier Tech announced that, despite the name change, it was stepping away from the team. \u201cAfter multiple discussions with the team and careful assessment of all relevant circumstances, Premier Tech has decided to step down as co-title sponsor of the team taking effect immediately,” a company statement said. “Although we took notice of the team\u2019s decision to change its name for the 2026 season, the core reason for Premier\u00a0Tech to sponsor the team has been overshadowed to a point where it has become untenable for us to continue as a sponsor.\u201d<\/p>\n

That leaves the team formerly known as Israel\u2013Premier Tech nameless for the moment and in search of a sponsor. But what effect will Premier Tech\u2019s decision to drop out despite the name change have on prospective sponsors? Has the team become irrevocably toxic because of its former name? Time will tell. In the meantime, if you try to go to its website (as of November 12, 2025), you get this message: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable<\/em>. That seems ominous.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Premier Tech will apparently have no problem finding a new team to sponsor. According to several reports<\/a>, it is being courted by several teams, and has held exploratory talks with INEOS Grenadiers\u00a0and Alpecin\u2013Deceuninck. Another possibility is the women\u2019s French Pro team St Michel\u2013Pr\u00e9f\u00e9rence Home\u2013Auber 93, which could be a good fit for the Canadian company since it has three Canadian riders, including the 2023 Paris-Roubaix Femmes winner Alison Jackson. In its statement announcing the departure from IPT, Premier Tech also declared, \u201cSupporting the growth of the sport, alongside the development of Qu\u00e9bec and Canadian cyclists, is at the heart of [our] commitment \u2014 and will remain so in the future.\u201d So there will be at least one happy winner in this tumultuous post-season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I doubt if there\u2019s ever been a cycling post-season as uncertain, and even inscrutable, as this one. This uncertainty concerns […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":204168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[7258,6356,4619,8647,6734,8781],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-204167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-adam-hansen","tag-biniam-girmay","tag-cycling-news","tag-intermarche-wanty","tag-israel-premier-tech","tag-team-lotto","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nUncertainty Remains for Cycling Teams as 2026 Draws Near<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I doubt if there\u2019s ever been a cycling post-season as uncertain, and even inscrutable, as this one. 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