The movement window for professional cycling officially opens on Saturday, August 1, with a series of high-level moves being announced by publicly revealing their new recruits by 2021.
The moving market has been governed by a number of factors, from Chris Froome’s already announced move to Israel Start-Up Nation, to a number of captured under-23 prospects and a steady flow of cyclists choosing to rejoin their existing teams. Of course, the main theme is the pandemic of the COVID-19 coronavirus and its effects on all facets of professional cycling.
Adam Yates with the team between Mitchelton-Scott and Team Ineos
In recent months, the effects of the pandemic have exposed the sport’s monetary weaknesses, resulting in wage cuts, wage deferrals and, in the most excessive cases, such as CCC Team, the end of a sponsor’s participation in the WorldTour.
These effects can be noticed above the waterline, but there are also strong underlying currents, such as monetary unrest faced by motorcycle brands and other sponsors that can have a massive effect if other races are cancelled, especially the Tour de France.
NTT Pro Cycling, Bahrain McLaren and EF Pro Cycling are among the questions they face about their finances by 2021 and, as a result, their methods of recruiting cyclists have been suspended or reduced.
There are groups that have weathered Storm COVID-19 strangely well. Jumbo-Visma is expected to call Team Sunweb’s Sam Oomen to upgrade Laurens from Plus, who leaves for Team Ineos, while his Classics team has also been bolstered by David Dekker’s arrival from SEG Academy. They are also very likely to renew Tony Martin and, with all his Grand Tour leaders under contract until at least the end of 2021, his control had the chance to take a look at him several years later than to concentrate on the short term.
The Ineos team, as Cyclingnews reported Friday, is in talks with Adam Yates as they are the most productive to fill the gap within their team. They are also expected to make more contracts for cyclists such as Filippo Ganna and Tao Geoghegan Hart.
His Grand Tour leaders, Egan Bernal, Richard Carapaz and Geraint Thomas have at least one year lower contract, and Jim Ratcliffe’s team was first connected to Bob Jungels, Cyclingnews understands that the talented off-roader is unlikely to enroll in the group. Richie Porte, however, is about to return as a super domestic, having turned down an offer to meet Chris Froome at Israel Start Up-Nation.
Mitchelton-Scott, whose long term is secured at least until the end of 2021 through team owner Gerry Ryan, is on hold. Once, Ryan got into his pocket and kept the team, providing the team’s riders for at least a year longer if they stay, while the Yates brothers and some of the other more sensitive cyclists received longer offers.
Interest in Simon Yates from Trek-Segafredo has cooled, even with Porte about to leave, but if Adam Yates leaves, Mitchelton-Scott will have a greater chance to enter the market. They are said to be interested in a number of imaginable one-day specialists and, with Jack Haig also out of contract, have a possible replacement for Adam Yates who deserve to make the decision to settle for Ineos’ offer.
Bora-Hansgrohe has been discreetly effective on the market, with a long-term outlook for Peter Sagan and more oriented to Grand Tours.
Nils Politt, who existed at Israel Start-Up Nation, was linked months ago, according to several groups approaching his agent, while Wilco Kelderman’s signing To Emmanuel Buchmann in Grand Tours, and the extension of Max Schachmann’s contract, were vital. Business. The German WorldTour team still has a lot of leeway, with almost part of the existing list to be renewed. Gregor Muhlberger, Patrick Konrad and Rafal Majka have not yet announced their future. Sagan’s contract expires in 2021.
French groups AG2R La Mondiale, Groupama-FDJ and Cofidis have remained strong in recent months and some doubts about their monetary stability. Groupama-FDJ has just renewed all its executives, while Cofidis has supported Elia Viviani and Guillaume Martin for at least another year.
AG2R, however, has disorders to resolve. Citroen was announced as the official sponsor for 2021 but, with Pierre Latour about to transfer to Total Direct Energie and Romain Bardet on Team Sunweb, the French team wants a new control structure.
Oliver Naesen has been wisely renovated, but cannot be expected to generate enough effects to satisfy a team that, two years ago, was complicated in the Tour de France. Jungels and Greg Van Avermaet have been connected to the team, but none solve the GC leadership challenge. The challenge facing AG2R and other groups is that there are very few Grand Tour drivers with experience in the market. Fabio Aru, Rigoberto Uron, Miguel Angel Lopez and the Izagirre brothers are on the loose but are bets.
It turns out that the Sunweb team made the decision to point romain Bardet, but has only a handful of seats by 2021, with Nikias Arndt, Jai Hindley, Robert Power and Florian Stork without a contract.
Trek-Segafredo has re-signed the understated Bauke Mollema for another two years and is in a position to see Porte leave if the Australian does not need to aim for the overall standings at Grand Tours. The U.S. team He has a number of young runners in his books and, having re-signed Jasper Stuyven in one position, joins Matteo Moschetti and the experienced Gianluca Brambilla.
The 3 groups in the Middle East launch the market in many other positions.
The UAE Team Emirates has re-signed a number of drivers in recent months and is in a much more powerful position than it was two years ago. They seem to have learned from their mistakes, broadened the stage of their staff and went to market to recruit talented young riders. They are also financially sound at this time.
Jasper Philipsen and Fabio Aru are his two outstanding top drivers without a contract, the Italian advancing after two seasons of injury. It was connected to Movistar earlier this year and is still on the market. Jan Polanc is another driver who does not yet have a contract offer, despite his respectable record.
Bahrain McLaren started the year with great ambitions and spoke of beating Ineos on the Tour in the coming years. Although this would possibly still happen, they were forced into the moving market with a hand tied behind their backs. McLaren is increasingly likely to relinquish his co-sponsoring role due to primary monetary upheaval disorders within the motorsports company and the team is actively seeking a replacement.
Most of the team’s Grand Tour riders still have a contract, but their main and classic exercise, cyclists such as Mark Cavendish, Phil Bauhaus, Heinrich Haussler and the most popular Ivan Cortina and Dylan Teuns, are off contract. The biggest high-level runner vying to join the team is Jungels.
Until now, Froome’s departure to Israel’s Start-Up Nation has not triggered the wave of transfers that many foreigners were waiting for. Porte rejected an offer of be and, despite the obvious deficiencies in the team list, so far few additions have been made.
As Cyclingnews reported last week, Daryl Impey decides between joining Froome and leading his career at Mitchelton-Scott, while EF’s Simon Clarke is another driving force on the team’s radar.
Control has been very busy recruiting runners from their existing squadron, but if they really want to help Froome in the Tour de France next season, they want it for their climbing contingent. There has been interest in the Izagirre brothers, anyone on the loose to leave Astana, but several other teams, adding Arkéa-Samsic, have also expressed interest in signing at least Gorka. A driving force to sign for Nairo Quintana in Arkéa is Miguel Eduardo Flórez, who currently races for Gianni Savio’s Androni Giocattoli team.
Cyclingnews understands that Froome’s movement has led the team to start discussions about new kits and potential equipment. They see Froome as an investment and an opportunity to get more lucrative donations now that they have on board a four-time Tour winner.
The market is slow, with sponsors and groups waiting a few more weeks to reveal their cards. The consensus, after talking to groups and officials, is that September and October will be incredibly busy.
EF Pro Cycling is waiting to finalize its budget and has cycling agents to which they will offer contracts during the Tour de France, while Patrick Lefevere of QuickStep leaves things behind. The belgian team manager has limited features this year, with the maximum of his list of 2021 already decided.
However, it can wait. If negotiations between the CCC team and the Manuela Foundation fail and Continuum Sports, the organization behind the CCC’s WorldTour license, fails to reach a sponsorship deal, then only about 30 cyclists will be on the market. The scenario is similar to NTT, where Bjarne Riis has not yet announced a new sponsor.
There were rumors that Astana was also in trouble due to the fall in Kazakhstan’s oil costs and exchange rates, but, according to several flight attendants, Vinokourov finally began to make noise about contract offerings. Miguel Angel López is the team’s biggest un contractless driver, while Rigoberto Uron at EF is also free to negotiate with potential contenders.
It is only cyclists who replace the teams; There will be a motorcycle sponsor settings carousel for 2021.
Jumbo-Visma will lead Cervélo in 2021, while dutch team’s current cycling sponsor, Bianchi, is in complex talks with Mitchelton to update Scott.
Argon 18 has connected to Sunweb, which loses Cervélo, but the team has denied it, while BMC may be on its way to AG2R, even if NTT maintains that of the Swiss brand.
Subscribe to the Cyclingnews newsletter. You can choose to leave at any time. For more information on how to do this and how we purchase your data, please see our privacy policy.
Thank you for signing up for Cycling News. You will soon receive a verification email.
There’s a problem. Refresh the page and re-consult.
Cyclingnews is from Future plc, a foreign media organization and a leading virtual publisher. Visit our corporate website.