Teams & Riders The Great Big Cycling Transfers, Extensions, and Rumours Thread

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Aug 29, 2009
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Alexander Krieger (Tudor) retires.
there's quite a good interview with him on the Tudor website


From what it sounds like, main reason for his retirement was his bad crash in the Napoli stage of the 2024 Giro

"When I returned to the scene of the accident during the 2025 Giro d'Italia, I felt like I had come full circle. It helped me process the accident. There's a tree at the scene, and at my crash 2024 I was thrown into it. The result was a broken pelvis and multiple rib fractures. Seeing that tree completely intact showed me how small and vulnerable we are as humans"

Asked for a main reason for ending his career he says "It is the fear of crashing and seriously injuring myself. It's not just the fear of crashing itself; I still feel the necessary willingness to take risks. The fear of injuring myself so badly that permanent damage is expected — this fear is paralysing."
 
Dec 27, 2015
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there's quite a good interview with him on the Tudor website


From what it sounds like, main reason for his retirement was his bad crash in the Napoli stage of the 2024 Giro

"When I returned to the scene of the accident during the 2025 Giro d'Italia, I felt like I had come full circle. It helped me process the accident. There's a tree at the scene, and at my crash 2024 I was thrown into it. The result was a broken pelvis and multiple rib fractures. Seeing that tree completely intact showed me how small and vulnerable we are as humans"

Asked for a main reason for ending his career he says "It is the fear of crashing and seriously injuring myself. It's not just the fear of crashing itself; I still feel the necessary willingness to take risks. The fear of injuring myself so badly that permanent damage is expected — this fear is paralysing."
I'll never forget José De Cauwer's quote after a great lead-out by Krieger in the 2022 TDF: "Krieger, a man you can count on during war times".
 
Mar 12, 2009
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UCI points don't matter for them at margins anywhere near them as long as they'll have VdP and Phil.
Ya, I suppose that's true. It just feels a little vulnerable to rely so heavily on just a few riders. I guess even if they would crash out like Lotto did this year with their points, they would still have two other years to make it right to not get relegated.

It's funny really how little the rankings mean to anyone except for the relegation battle. Back when they replaced the World Cup with the World Tour the idea was to broaden the fight to be the best riders beyond just 10 one-day races but when it fills the whole calendar it seems like the whole competition sort of evaporated.
 
Dec 27, 2015
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Looks like Flanders has announced a whole lot of new transfers.
Amongst them the most interesting is probabyl Henri Vandenabeele, once a promising climber he faded away at DSM. He showed some flashes earlier in the season but the rest of the year was more of the usual unremarkable racing. I do hope he gets to fulfill his potential someday.

Michiel Lambrecht & Leander Van Hautegem jump ship from WBWB.
 
Apr 30, 2011
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Dec 27, 2015
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Some more big news coming out of Portugal is that Efapel have secured the top-notch signings of Jesús David Peña and young Lucas Lopes, Azevedo really showing some ambition on the market with August a mere 10 months away. They will be training under the watchful eye of the apparently hair-abundant non-fraud Javier Sola next season.
He'll no longer be at UAE?
 
Dec 28, 2010
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Some more big news coming out of Portugal is that Efapel have secured the top-notch signings of Jesús David Peña and young Lucas Lopes, Azevedo really showing some ambition on the market with August a mere 10 months away. They will be training under the watchful eye of the apparently hair-abundant non-fraud Javier Sola next season.
Still strange how he wasn't retained by Jayco. Unless they knew something which meant Portugal was always going to be a likely destination.
 
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Jun 20, 2015
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Still strange how he wasn't retained by Jayco. Unless they knew something which meant Portugal was always going to be a likely destination.

No surprise for me because pena's just short of WT level. And at that time, Jayco had a decent climbing team.
 
Apr 2, 2010
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Simone Velasco has extended with Astana for two more years.

That’s 26 riders confirmed for next year. Space for 1-4 new signings.
 
Nov 23, 2013
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Wasnt Silva from Caja also basically confirmed? And Syritsa is definitely coming back to WT team. That other Russian guy that won in Turkey was rumored too.
They were also in talks with Matteo Scalco, but no contract was signed yet as of a week or so ago when the rumour was reported
 
May 10, 2015
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This explains why these transfers (especially the Girmay one) and this whole merger in general are dragging on. Intermarché is using Belgian labor law to it's advantage. It was bound to happen at some point with Belgian riders treatening to use it a lot the last few years to get out of their contracts. Now it's kinda the other way around.

The Girmay contract is expensive, if he actually has a contract till 2028 (doubt) it would literally be worth around 5M, that's insane. But even if it's just one year (that's what we hear behind the scenes) it's still a lot. Apparently Cycling Academy doesn't want to pay it cause they also aren't completely sure about their money situation with the whole Israel and Adams "leaving".