It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new season, and it’s that time of year when we’re still getting used to old faces on new teams.
This winter has seen several big name transfers that could shake-up the pro peloton as well as plenty more under-the-radar moves that could have a huge impact once racing gets underway in Australia later this month.
Robyn has assessed all the transfers to identify six that you should follow over the 2026 season to cause a stir.
Remco Evenepoel to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
Maximilian Fries/Red Bull Content Pool
In August, the news dropped that Remco Evenepoel would break his contract with Soudal-QuickStep to join Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe from 2026. It ended a seven-year partnership between a Grand Tour victor and a team whose identity was forged in one-day races. It was a logical step, now the team can return to what they know best: being a Classics and sprinting squad.
Evenepoel immediately slots into the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe hierarchy on the top step despite the squad already packing Primož Roglič, Florian Lipowitz, Giulio Pellizzari and Jai Hindley. The opportunity to house someone like Evenepoel doesn’t come around very often. Even though he is only 25 years of age, he packs a Vuelta a España victory, stages in all three Grand Tours, multiple stage race and Classics wins as well as multiple Olympic and World titles.
Juggling young talent and Grand Tour winners is no easy feat. Evenepoel is scheduled for the Tour de France but alongside Florian Lipowitz – Evenepoel finished third in 2024 and Lipowitz finished third in 2025. Neither seem ready to usurp either Jonas Vingegaard or Tadej Pogačar just yet, and only one podium spot left is a tight squeeze. When it comes to Grand Tours, Evenepoel has a 50% DNF rate so far, and he won’t want this trend to continue heading into 2026. How the Tour plays out for them will be an enthralling watch indeed.
Big questions: Will Evenepoel’s Grand Tour DNF form strike again? Can Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe balance all their leaders?
Derek Gee-West to Lidl-Trek
Lidl-Trek
Lidl-Trek are making moves to establish themselves in the Grand Tour space having signed Juan Ayuso from UAE Team Emirates XRG and Derek Gee-West from NSN Cycling. Since Chris Horner won the Vuelta all the way back in 2013 the team has focussed on one day success, stage hunting and winning green jerseys. With such success in that strategy, it would be understandable for the trend to continue.
That’s not what the new signings point at though. Gee-West landed at Lidl-Trek following a lengthy saga as he tried to leave Israel-Premier Tech. The Canadian has buckets of Grand Tour experience, finishing fourth at the Giro last year, and will add a much-needed second leader alongside Ayuso.
If Giulio Ciccone and Mattias Skjelmose transfer into domestiques alongside riders like Carlos Verona, Quinn Simmons and Julien Bernard, there’s potential for the team to help take Gee-West to new heights. However doing so while balancing and maintaining their current talents has to be addressed. Potentially next off-season?
Questions: Can Lidl-Trek build themselves into a capable Grand Tour squad as opposed to a strong group of stage hunters? Is this a balance that will work for them?
Oscar Onley to Ineos Grenadiers
Ineos Grenaiders
Oscar Onley sent the cycling world abuzz with his breakthrough Tour performance last year. The 22-year-old Scot battled Lipowitz for the final podium spot and, even though it would be just out of his grasp, strong performances in the mountains caught the eye of many a team wanting to swoop in and steal him from Picnic-PostNL.
In the end it was Ineos Grenadiers who won his signature. He joins Kévin Vauquelin as one of the newbies on the British team. Once a Grand Tour powerhouse, the squad has petered out in the 2020s. They possess talent in Egan Bernal, Carlos Rodríguez and Thymen Arensman, but Bernal is not likely to reach his pre-crash level, 24-year-old Rodríguez packs two top ten finishes at both the Tour and Vuelta – hitting a best finish of fifth place in France in 2023. while Arensman raced to sixth place at the Vuelta in 2022 and at the Giro in 2023 and 2024 and shone with two stage wins at last year’s Tour.
There’s a plethora of GC talent that will now be led by their new director of racing Geraint Thomas. The future looks bright.
Questions: Is Onley the next male face of British cycling? Does his absence clear space for Max Poole at Picnic-PostNL?
Sarah Van Dam to Visma-Lease a Bike
Szymon Gruchalski/Getty Images
It was a breakthrough season for Sarah Van Dam in 2025. Not only thriving in the one-day races throughout May, she saw stage race success with a podium finish at Itzulia and fifth place at the Tour of Britain. Her best stage result in a Grand Tour came at the Giro, where she raced to sixth on a hilly Stage 6.
She stepped up in 2026 from Ceratizit to one of the biggest WorldTour teams in Visma-Lease a Bike. The 24-year-old thrives over bumpy terrains and it will be interesting to follow her progress as she learns from the likes of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Marianne Vos.
Question: Will she take on a domestique role or build on her individual success?
Benoît Cosnefroy to UAE Team Emirates XRG
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Not many people can get a word in edgeways at UAE Team Emirates XRG, such is the strength they possess from top to bottom. Benoît Cosnefroy packed his bags from Decathlon after spending his entire professional career in AG2R colours.
The Frenchman notched only 13 race days last season but is capable of making a real difference at the pointy end of big races. If Isaac del Toro had a stronghold on Italian one-day races in 2025, they’ll be hoping Cosnefroy can be let loose while the Mexican takes on more important duties. As for the bigger races, he’ll likely be a key asset for UAE’s ever-strengthening Grand Tour mountain train.
Question: How will he adapt to being a small fish in a big pond?
Sam Welsford to Ineos Grenadiers
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It was a surprise when Caleb Ewan signed for Ineos Grenadiers in 2025 given the team’s historic lack of investment in sprinting. However he then retired after two races and they were back to square one.
That was until Sam Welsford joined the team from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe this off-season. It feels slightly counter intuitive to depart from a stronger sprinting squad, but he leaves behind competition from teammates Jordi Meeus and Danny van Poppel. Welsford typically thrives in Australia with six stages of the Tour Down Under to his name, so Ineos will be hoping he’ll be quick off the mark again this season.
Question: Do Ineos Grenadiers have a strong enough sprint train to sniff a modicum of success here?
