The start of August brings the cycling transfer season, where riders and teams can announce their signings and contracts for the next year.
The major moves, like Remco Evenepoel to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, are the ones that make the headlines, but there are hundreds of transfers each year, at all different levels.
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Stagiaires are young riders who will ride for a team on a trial basis between August and December, to gain racing experience and try to prove their worth for a full contract – read on for a full explanation, and the rules around stagiaires.
What is a stagiaire?
‘Stagiaire’ is the French word for ‘intern’, and that basically sums up what a stagiaire stint is: a rider is essentially interning for a team, riding for them on a trial basis to gain experience and race kilometres.
Like an internship, there isn’t always a promise of employment or a full contract at the end of a stagiaire period.
Some will ride as a stagiaire to essentially get a head start on their WorldTour career with a team they’ve already signed for – think Cat Ferguson racing for Movistar at the end of last year when she’d long been signed for 2025 – but many will go back to their old team, or a different lower-level team.
However, they can also develop into full contracts, for the season to come or a future one, and these stagiaire periods are important for gaining relationships and connections with teams.
Riley Sheehan won Paris-Tours as a stagiaire in 2023 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Whilst stagiaire rides are primarily to gain experience in races, it’s not unheard of for riders to find success whilst riding as a stagiaire – in 2023, for example, the USA’s Riley Sheehan won Paris-Tours whilst on a stagiaire contract with Israel-Premier Tech. A full contract for the next year was announced shortly after his win.
At development teams that aren’t linked to pro teams, it’s often really important for team managers to foster relationships with WorldTour teams that will offer them stagiaire spots – for example, AVC Aix-en-Provence often send riders on to Cofidis.
Stagiaire rules
Like anything in cycling, there are certain rules that govern what teams can and can’t do with their stagiaires.
Firstly, teams are only allowed to take on a maximum of three per season. This can be in addition to the 28 (or 30, including two neo-pros) riders that a team is usually allowed to have, so teams could have up to 33 riders in the end part of the season.
However, related to this, stagiaires don’t earn any UCI points for their team whilst on a trainee contract. That’s to prevent teams from just farming points through stagiaires at the end of a season. The rider themself will earn the points, but they won’t count on the UCI team rankings.
Thirdly, stagiaires are not permitted to ride WorldTour races, only Pro races and below – but fortunately, there are plenty of them at the end of the season. This also gives WorldTour teams the chance to rest some of their main squad and fill out the roster for the late-season one-day races with stagiaires.
There is no limit on age for a stagiaire; they just have to have not had a professional contract previously.
Why are stagiaires becoming less common?
At this point in 2025, only seven riders have been announced as stagiaires for men’s WorldTour teams, which is about half of the number we’ve seen in the last few years.
The reasons for this are complex and varied, but have a lot to do with the fact that riders are signing full contracts younger and younger. Because of this, riders and agents know it’s an option and will push for a full contract over a stagiaire contract.
On the team’s side, if they think a rider is good enough, they will just sign them properly – the increased importance of data and scouting means these trial periods are less valuable now.
Moreover, many more WorldTour teams now have development squads, which somewhat defeats the purpose of stagiaires, as development riders can ride non-WorldTour races with the WorldTour squad at any time during the season, or indeed be moved up at any point if there is space. So teams don’t need a formal stagiaire contract to give young riders racing experience.
However, there are still some stagiaires at WorldTour level, and still many at ProTeam and Continental level, and they’re a good way of identifying new talent, so they are worth being across as a fan.
Stagiaires to watch in 2025
Paula Ostiz will debut for Movistar this year (Image credit: Getty Images)
The main stagiaire rider you should keep an eye on this autumn is Paula Ostiz, who is riding for Movistar. She already has a contract announced with the team for 2026-28, but will make her debut this autumn as a stagiaire, similar to Cat Ferguson last year.
Ostiz is one of the most exciting junior prospects in the sport right now, competing with the best juniors last year – when she was still a first-year rider – and again this year. She took her biggest result so far when she won the junior Tour of Flanders, becoming the first Spanish rider to ever win any iteration of the big Belgian Classic.
She also won the Watersley Ladies Challenge, an under-23 race, at just 18, and is a favourite for the World Championships coming up.
It’s not yet announced which pro races she’s going to ride for Movistar this summer and autumn, but don’t be surprised if she repeats Ferguson’s success and takes an early top result, or even a win, before her permanent transfer to the WorldTour in January.
Stagiaires indexWorldTour stagiaires for the 2025 season
Alpecin Deceuninck
Arkéa-B&B Hotels
Camille Charret (19, from Vélo Club Villefranche Beaujolais)
Cofidis
Léandre Huck (25, from Veloce Club Rouen 76)Jamie Meehan (21, from AVC Aix Provence Dole)Tommaso Dati (23, from Biesse-Carrera-Premac)
Picnic PostNL
Dillon Corkery (26, from St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93)Timo de Jong (26, from VolkerWessels)Women’s WorldTour stagiaires for the 2025 season
Lidl-Trek
Marine Lenehan (27, from Dan Morissey Primor by Pissei)
Movistar
Paula Ostiz (18, from Café Baqué)Top ProTeam stagiaires for the 2025 season:
Arkéa-B&B Hotels Women
Israel-Premier Tech
Zac Marriage (21, 7Eleven Cliqq Roadbike Philippines)
Lotto
Matthew Fox (22, Veloce Club Rouen 76)
TotalEnergies
Theo Lévêque (21, Vendée U Pays de la Loire)Mathéo Barusseau (20, Vendée U Pays de la Loire)Adam Mitchell (23, Vendée U Pays de la Loire)
Uno-X Mobility
Storm Ingebritsen (20, Team Coop-Repsol)Tobias Svarre (21, Team ColoQuick)
Cyclingnews will cover all of the 2026 cycling transfers from around the men’s and women’s pelotons with news, analysis, and an updated transfer index, to make sure you don’t miss a thing this transfer season.