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The “silly season” of the 2023 transfer got pretty silly, pretty fast.
Lidl-Trek and UAE Emirates booted the doors down with some blockbuster deals, top sprinters are swapping across WorldTour rivals, and of course, questions remain over the futures of Mark Cavendish and Remco Evenepoel.
And those are only some select headlines.
Struggling to make sense of all silliness?
Here are the main takeaways so far from the men’s WorldTour transfer window, and a few tasty nuggets to watch out for in the next few weeks.
Also read:
- Evenepoel vows to match ‘unbelievable level’ of Vingegaard, Pogačar ahead of TdF 2024
- Cavendish ‘fixed’ but not talking about comeback after TdF crash
N.B. The below breakdowns capture only the major movements as of August 16:
The big movers: Lidl-Trek, UAE Emirates, Ineos Grenadiers
Lidl-Trek
- IN: Jonathan Milan, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Andrea Bagioli (all 2026), Patrick Konrad (2025)
- RENEWALS: Quinn Simmons (2026), Giulio Ciccone (2027)
UAE Emirates
- IN: Nils Politt, Pavel Sivakov (both 2026)
Ineos Grenadiers
- OUT: Tao Geoghegan Hart, Pavel Sivakov
- RUMORED OUT: Carlos Rodríguez
UAE Emirates, Lidl-Trek, and Ineos Grenadiers have been at the center of some of the signings of the summer. And it was Ineos Grenadiers – the former powerhouse of the pro peloton – that was the surprising “victim” of potentially the two biggest switches so far.
Tao Geoghegan Hart and Pavel Sivakov’s exit from Ineos Grenadiers puts a serious dent in the Brit team’s climber ambitions for 2024.
As if that wasn’t enough to get Dave Brailsford in a sweat, rising Spanish star Carlos Rodríguez has also been linked elsewhere for the new year. Ineos Grenadiers perhaps needs to keep hold of Rodríguez even harder than before if it’s to keep a foot in the grand tour door.
But Brailsford and Jim Ratcliffe are no fools – a big deal could be afoot. Remco, all eyes remain on you.
UAE Emirates’ climber bench behind Tadej Pogačar, João Almeida, Juan Ayuso, and Adam Yates became even deeper with the addition of Pavel Sivakov.
The team has been stung by two grand tour defeats at the hands of Jumbo-Visma this season and is all-in on its mission to buy its way to the top of the GC scene. With rouleur de luxe Nils Politt also arriving to the team in 2024, “Pogi” and Co. are guaranteed elite support on all terrain.
Meanwhile, Lidl-Trek added some serious heft to both its GC and sprinter units in the shape of Tao Geoghegan Hart, Patrick Konrad, and Jonathan Milan.
The U.S.-based team thrived in its mold as an unruly mob of stage-hunters, but marquee signings “TGH” and Milan will give the team two new centers of orbit through 2026.
The sprinter carousel
- Arnaud Démare: Groupama FDJ – Arkéa-Samsic (2025)
- Fabio Jakobsen: Soudal Quick-Step – DSM-Firmenich (2026)
- Sam Bennett: Bora-Hansgrohe – Ag2r Citroën (Rumored)
- Sam Welsford: DSM – Bora-Hansgrohe (Rumored)
Some of the peloton’s fastest finishers are speeding around the transfer carousel this summer.
Even with Soudal Quick-Step’s new focus on Remco Evenepoel, it seemed a surprise the “Wolfpack” let Fabio Jakobsen go – the Dutchman guaranteed wins and had a deep emotional history with the team.
History dictates sprinters suffer when they leave the clutches of Patrick Lefevere’s burly leadout crew. It will be intriguing to see whether Jakobsen bucks the trend and returns to his 2022 dominance with DSM-Firmenich.
Contrastingly, there was no surprise when Arnaud Démare left Groupama-FDJ – there are only so many selection snubs one rider can take. The Frenchman’s move to rival squad Arkéa-Samsic sees Démare taking the exit with his middle fingers aloft.
And hopping on the rumor mill, it could be all change at Bora-Hansgrohe.
Sam Bennett continues to suffer from riding with a stage-racer team and is reportedly on the way out, with DSM’s rising Aussie speedster Sam Welsford is said to be braced to fill the void.
And who replaces Welsford at DSM-Firmenich? You got it – Jakobsen.
The WorldTour wannabes: Uno-X, Tudor Pro Cycling
Uno-X:
- IN: Magnus Cort, Andreas Leknessund (both 2026), Markus Hoelgaard (2024)
- RUMORED IN: Michael Mørkøv
Tudor Pro Cycling:
- IN: Matteo Trentin, Michael Storer, Floran Stork, Marius Mayrhofer (all 2026), Alberto Dianese (2025)
Uno-X and Tudor Pro Cycling are making some big steps in their ambitions to move up to the WorldTour.
Both of these ProTeam squads are in the hunt for promotion to the top tier in 2026 and need to amass a stack of UCI points to make it happen. The signings of Magnus Cort, Andreas Leknessund, Micahel Storer, and Matteo Trentin should bring them some big bangs for their bucks.
Cort and Leknessund are inch-perfect signings for Uno-X. The twosome bolster the squad’s Scandi identity and should suit the squad’s aggro race-style nicely.
Meanwhile, Fabian Cancellara’s Tudor crew could be reinvented next year by the arrival of five former WorldTour riders to a squad dominated by sub-25s.
Michael Mørkøv is also touted to be linking up with his sport director brother Jesper at Uno-X next year (if Astana doesn’t get to him first – see below). The Rolls Royce leadout man would bring more than a decade of extra experience to his youthful home team and could prove crucial to it building on a string of headline Tour de France results from 2023.
Evenepoel, Cavendish, Jumbo-Visma: Big questions over the kings of the peloton
Astana Qazaqstan:
- IN: Max Kanter, Ide Schelling, Anthon Charmig (all 2025)
- RENEWED: Cees Bol (2025)
- RUMORED RENEWAL / IN: Mark Cavendish, Michael Mørkøv
Soudal Quick-Step
- OUT: Mauro Schmid, Andrea Bagioli, Fabio Jakobsen, Ethan Vernon
- IN: Luke Lamperti (2025)
- RUMORED OUT: Remco Evenepoel
- RUMORED IN: Mikel Landa, George Bennett
Jumbo-Visma:
- IN: Matteo Jorgenson (2026)
The most intriguing stories always emerge out of anticipation, and this year is no different.
Mark Cavendish and in particular Remco Evenepoel are filling enough column inches for their own dedicated dailies and delivering enough drama to sell their stories to Netflix.
Evenepoel continues to be linked to Ineos Grenadiers despite his ongoing contract with Soudal Quick-Step, while Cavendish could see one more year if Astana-Qazaqstan has anything to do with it.
Evenepoel is reportedly unhappy with his Quick-Step climber support, and the exit of top domestique Mauro Schmid likely won’t have helped.
Ineos Grenadiers’ 2024 climber exodus could hint that a big new name is due to join the squad as part of its mission to return to the top of the Tour de France. And if anyone’s going to level with Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, it’s Evenepoel.
However, sources through the peloton suggest Mikel Landa and George Bennett might become part of the Belgian “Wolfpack” in 2024. Their futures could be strongly intertwined with that of Evenepoel.
Cavendish has an open door to race one more year with Astana-Qazaqstan in his quest to go one better than Eddy Merckx.
The grapevine has been quiet since Alexander Vinokourov made his offer, but the arrival of Max Kanter and renewal of leadout ace Cees Bol suggests “Vino” has sprint ambitions scrawled into his notepad for 2024.
Michael Mørkøv – the sprint-train mastermind who piloted Cavendish to four stage wins at the 2021 Tour de France – has also been linked with the team to further add to the Cav-ticipation.
And Jumbo-Visma?
The story is that the grand tour-slayer only just took a seat on the transfer merry-go-round with the recent signing of Matteo Jorgenson.
Rohan Dennis and Jos Van Emden both retire at the end of this season, leaving an experience gap in the team, and Tobias Foss is likely on the way out
Even without Dennis, Van Emden, and Foss, Jumbo-Visma doesn’t need any more riders on what would still be the strongest squad of the peloton.
However, additional classics and stage-race artillery would no doubt help with its quest to remain at the top of the WorldTour – expect more signings, soon.