Has Eddie Dunbar done enough to crack our top-twenty transfers? Photo courtesy of SWpix.

The middle stretch of any transfer ranking is often where the real story of an upcoming season begins to take shape. The headline moves draw the attention, but it’s these signings – the quietly shrewd pickups, the calculated risks, the riders searching for a better fit – that tend to reveal the direction teams are heading and the margins they hope to exploit.

The group from 40 to 16 is full of those inflexion points. Some riders are chasing a reset after stalled momentum; others are stepping into bigger roles, or finally finding a structure that suits what they’ve always hinted they could be. There are prospects being fast-tracked, veterans trying to squeeze more from the final years of their prime, and teams taking measured swings at upside they believe hasn’t yet been unlocked.

Taken together, these moves offer a clearer picture of how the 2026 peloton might actually race – which teams will be deeper, which riders might reshape a spring campaign or a Grand Tour, and where the competitive balance could subtly, or not so subtly, shift.

Let’s get into the next set of names. This was, without a doubt, the hardest section to rank because the margins between 20 and 14 were really tough.

Part one: 🚨 Ranking the top 100 cycling transfers ahead of 2026 – Nos 100-71
Part two: 🚨 Ranking the top 100 cycling transfers ahead of 2026 – Nos 70-41

Follow me on: Twitter 🟢 — Instagram 🔴 — Bluesky 🔵

40 – Fred Wright 🇬🇧
From: Bahrain – Victorious
To: Pinarello – Q36.5 Pro Cycling

After six years at Bahrain Victorious, it was time for Wright to make a move. His time on the team hadn’t gone poorly, but at 26, he needed to break out of his comfort zone and try to reach the next level. There are no guarantees that a transfer will ensure sucess, but Wright looks like an excellent fit for Pinarello – Q36.5 Pro Cycling. He’ll have a team that’s more dialled towards attacking one-day races, and the aim must be to turn some of those top-tens – he had over a dozen in 2025 – into wins. He’ll align alongside Tom Pidcock and several other British riders on the team, and no doubt have a Classics and Tour de France-based programme. I really thought Ineos Grenadiers would be up for this move.

39 – Andrea Vendrame 🇮🇹
From: Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
To: Team Jayco AlUla

Jayco have basically guaranteed either winning a Giro stage or coming close with the signature of Vendrame. He’s racked up a top ten in each of the eight Giros he’s raced and won two stages. He’ll provide results from January through to October, and while I don’t quite see him racing as a climbing domestique for Ben O’Connor in the same way the team might do, I still think they’ve brought in a high-quality rider who helps give them a different dimension in specific finishes and races.

38 – Quinten Hermans 🇧🇪
From: Alpecin-Deceuninck
To: Pinarello – Q36.5 Pro Cycling

The 30-year-old finished second in Liege back in 2022, and has won the odd race here and there, but he’s been signed to reinforce the Classics core around Tom Pidcock at Pinarello – Q36.5 Pro Cycling. He had an excellent end to the 2025 season, with a string of top-tens, and when it comes to those punchy finishes, or even a race like Milan-San Remo, where Pidcock was isolated this year, he’ll be able to provide cover and assistance.

37 – Roger Adrià 🇪🇸
From: Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe
To: Movistar Team

With the team taking on a greater emphasis at Grand Tours and the cobbled Classics, Roger Adrià found himself on the fringes of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, but their loss is Movistar’s gain. I think Adrià is a great rider, and if you look at his results, he offers teams so much, either in breakaways or reduced group finishes, from the Ardennes to the late Italian one-day races. Should he win more with the talents at his disposal, absolutely, but at Movistar, a new approach and style of racing should benefit the 27-year-old. If you look at how he raced in Tirreno-Adriatico this year, he was on the front foot and in the mix for stage wins. Seems like a rider who, with the proper guidance, could be a winner in early-season races like the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Oman.

36 – Lewis Askey 🇬🇧
From: Groupama – FDJ
To: NSN Cycling Team