{"id":124178,"date":"2025-09-09T02:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T02:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124178\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T02:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T02:25:07","slug":"visma-lease-a-bike-sign-bruno-armirail-cattaneo-joins-remco-evenepoel-in-move-to-red-bull-bora-hansgrohe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124178\/","title":{"rendered":"Visma-Lease a Bike sign Bruno Armirail, Cattaneo joins Remco Evenepoel in move to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two of professional cycling’s top teams confirmed significant transfers for 2026, with Visma-Lease a Bike announcing they have signed French time trial champion Bruno Armirail<\/a> from Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe hailing the acquisition of Mattia Cattaneo<\/a>, who will join Remco Evenepoel in moving across from Soudal-QuickStep<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Armirail is still seeking his first WorldTour victory after eight seasons at the sport’s top level. The 31-year-old signed his first pro contract with Groupama-FDJ in 2018 and spent six seasons with the team before joining Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale in 2024.<\/p>\n

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An attacking rider, Armirail won the mountains classification in the Itzulia Basque Country and Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 this year in addition to the French time trial title.<\/p>\n

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Although he hasn’t won a Grand Tour stage yet, Armirail led the Giro d’Italia<\/a> for two stages in 2023 after making the winning breakaway on stage 14. He ended the race 16th overall behind winner Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d.<\/p>\n

“This is a unique opportunity in my career to race for one of the best teams in the world,” Armirail said in a Visma-Lease a Bike press release. “I want to challenge myself by changing environment and race for a foreign team for the first time.<\/p>\n

“I’m also looking forward to being part of a team that can compete for victory in nearly every race. I expect to play an important support role in the major races, but I also hope to keep improving in time trials, on climbs, and in controlling breakaways.”<\/p>\n

Grischa Niermann, the team’s head of racing, hailed Armirail’s experience – having raced nine Grand Tours including three Tours de France. “He’s suitable for all terrains,” Niermann said. “He brings a lot of experience and clearly has a big engine. But we believe that within our professional environment, he can still take further steps in his development.”<\/p>\n

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Another strong domestique is making a move for 2026: Mattia Cattaneo will leave Soudal-QuickStep and follow Remco Evenepoel to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old raced with Evenepoel since 2020, joining QuickStep after three seasons with the Androni Giocattoli ProTeam. Cattaneo began his career by signing with Lampre-Merida in 2013 straight out of the amateur ranks and has competed in 14 Grand Tours.<\/p>\n

His only WorldTour victory is the time trial in the 2023 Tour de Pologne, but he came close with second on stages in the Giro and Tour de France.<\/p>\n

As with Armirail, experience was a key factor in Cattaneo’s signing.<\/p>\n

“With Mattia, we continue our strategy of pairing our young talents with experienced professionals,” Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe CEO Ralph Denk said. “Mattia brings race awareness and experience, along with the big engine that provides crucial power for the team \u2013 from one-day races to the Grand Tours.”<\/p>\n

Cyclingnews will cover all of the 2026 cycling transfers<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of professional cycling’s top teams confirmed significant transfers for 2026, with Visma-Lease a Bike announcing they have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-124178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}