Team Camps Wrap Up as Peloton Rolls Toward 2026
Spain’s beautiful Costa Blanca was the sport’s unofficial capital over the past week, as WorldTour teams converged for their final pre-season tune-ups. Long, steady climbs, perfect tarmac, and reliably mild winter weather made for the familiar sight of full rosters logging massive training days, new equipment being stress-tested in the real world (including a quick covert trip from Tadej Pogačar to the cobblestones of Roubaix), and quiet conversations about roles, leadership, and ambition unfolding between café stops. At the teams’ individual media presentations, 2026 objectives were laid out. A loud signal came from the UAE Team when Pogačar brushed aside any notion of easing off after another dominant season; questions about workload and longevity were met with something closer to defiance than caution. Pogačar spoke openly about the Spring Classics, going as far as to say that a win at Paris–Roubaix would be the most meaningful achievement left for him at this stage of his career, adding that another Tour de France win wouldn’t really move the needle much for him. For a rider who already has almost everything on his résumé, the intensity of his winter focus suggested not fatigue, but a sharpening of intent. This doesn’t seem encouraging for the rest of the professional peloton.
Away from the microphones, the camps were also the backdrop for the closing stages of the quiet but sometimes dramatic transfer chessboard. Oscar Onley was notably absent from Team Picnic PostNL’s gathering, a no-show that, when combined with recent public comments, strongly hints that he won’t be riding for the squad in 2026. There were also rumors suggesting his team stands to collect a significant multi-million Euro windfall for agreeing to part ways with their star rider in the middle of his contract. Such a “sale” could be critical for the Dutch squad, which was recently denied the standard three-year WorldTour license from the UCI, and instead restricted to an annual plan due to uncertainty about their financial situation. Rumors continue to link Onley to INEOS Grenadiers, a move that would immediately complicate what many had assumed was a straightforward path for Derek Gee to the same destination. Gee, meanwhile, was spotted training with Lidl‑Trek, adding another layer of intrigue as his unresolved legal situation with NSN Cycling (previously Israel–Premier Tech) continues to hang in the background.
Taken together, these developments only underline the on-going structural shift in the sport that we have highlighted recently. Talented riders breaking through on smaller budget teams are increasingly funneled toward the sport’s richest organizations, where super-teams can offer entire performance ecosystems rather than just bigger salaries. Both small-budget and big-budget teams seem to be settling into living in this new reality. As the peloton rolls toward the 2026 season, the competitive balance already looks more top-heavy than it has in the past, shaped as much by off-season transfer and talent rearrangement as by in-season legs.
Nielsen released its annual report on sports media trends, highlighting among other things the significance of women’s sports, growing anticipation of the 2026 World Cup soccer championship, streaming sports narratives, and growing fan interest in Major League Baseball. The report notes that the 2025 Super Bowl made history by attracting over 127 million viewers – a new record for television viewership, and the occurrence on October 27th of a rare “sports equinox” when games from all five major sports leagues – the MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLS – happened on the same day. The report also indicates that overall sports viewership is continuing to grow, particularly as streaming unlocks new pathways into untapped markets; in turn, this provides all kinds of new avenues for sponsors to get more involved in sports. And in terms of sports narrative streaming and documentaries, the report again underlines the well-known effect of the Formula 1 series “Drive to Survive,” which has helped to more than double F1 viewership since it started in 2019, creating a huge windfall for the sport’s owner Liberty Media and its key broadcasters. According to Nielsen, total viewing for streaming sports documentaries reached 16,937 million minutes in 2024, up by more than a factor of four since 2021.
Last week we reported on new sports investment mechanisms for the ordinary investor; however, some of the billionaire class are still doing quite well in this arena – both from a financial and a competitive perspective. Perhaps most notable is the empire created by Walton in-law Stan Kroenke. Kroenke’s teams are currently highly favored to win the Super Bowl (the Los Angeles Rams), the Stanley Cup (the Colorado Avalanche) and the English Premier League (Arsenal). His Denver Nuggets only have the second-best odds currently to win the NBA Championship. His Kroenke Sports and Entertainment holding company is estimated by CNBC to have a valuation of over $20 billion, putting him well ahead of the other billionaire sports magnate groups like Harris Blitzer (owners of the Commanders, 76ers and Devils) and the Fenway Sports Group (Red Sox, Liverpool and Penguins). The cousin of Kroenke’s wife Ann is Rob Walton, the new principal owner of the Denver Broncos – another potential favorite for next year’s Super Bowl. Either way, if one forgives the hapless Rockies, it’s a good time to be a sports fan in Denver.
The economic and competitive market for women’s sports has grown exponentially in no small part due to the demands and guidance of its elite athletes, whether through personal star power or collective team pressure. Case in point, Germany’s 14 Women’s Bundesliga soccer clubs voted en masse last week to break away from the men’s league management organization. The new Frauen-Bundesliga (FBL) will coordinate on long-term marketing and professionalization objectives separately from the men’s DFL business organization. The collective action was the outcome over strategy and power-sharing disagreements between the women’s clubs and the men’s league, with regards to a prior joint-venture proposal in which the women’s clubs had limited power. The key driver in this breakaway movement is investment, although the women’s teams and athletes are also focused on minimum player salaries and improved personnel and infrastructure standards.
The men’s Bundesliga previously committed €100 million to be invested in women’s football, but the speed and scale of investment in women’s sports suggests that the women’s league is right to chart its own course – and women’s WorldTour cycling could be on a similar path. Investment in WWT cycling is primarily concentrated in one pocket: the teams. As marketing and business development engines for sponsor stakeholders, there are serious long-term return on investment considerations. The current WorldTour model is ripe for an overhaul with regards to promoting and developing the women’s sport separately from the men’s calendar, especially with regards to the consumer demographics and global demand for women’s sports overall. With Germany hosting the 2029 women’s UEFA championship, the FBL change in direction and specific market focus is right on cue – not just elevating the sport’s visibility in one of the world’s largest markets over the next 18 months, but also creating development momentum to maintain competitive parity with England and the U.S. for the women’s FIFA World Cup.