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

[RedheadDane]

According to Veloclub, Victor Lafay will continue with a different French team in 2026. The cheese has to wait.

I guess it won't be Unibet.

Or maybe it will be Unibet.
Just think of the content as he goes around races, selling cheese to unsuspecting spectators.


Or... it might be a conti team.

 

[pastronef]

According to Veloclub, Victor Lafay will continue with a different French team in 2026. The cheese has to wait.

I guess it won't be Unibet.

Victor Lafay devrait rester dans le peloton en 2026 - Velo-Club

Victor Lafay devrait poursuivre sa carrière en 2026 au sein d’une équipe française, après plusieurs mois d’incertitude.

www.velo-club.net

Gruppetto-forum rumors are Unibet. that would be great. even just for some French straight-edge fans moaning about Unibet's French license eheh

 

[Statze2]

Maurice Ballerstedt will Return to the peleton, he is Not allowed to Talk about it in public but he made hints that it will be a pro Tour Team. As he was sponsored from Rose during his Crit races maybe it is Unibet Rose?

 

[search]

it was basically known for months already, but Ackermann to Jayco has now finally been confirmed as well

✍️🇩🇪 Pascal Ackermann boosts Team Jayco AlUla’s sprint line-up

Pascal Ackermann will headline Team Jayco AlUla’s sprint line-up next season after signing a two-year contract with the squad. The 31-year-old German has won 45 UCI races over his career, including three stages of the Giro d’Italia and two stages of the Vuelta a España as well as being a...

greenedgecycling.com

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Maurice Ballerstedt will Return to the peleton, he is Not allowed to Talk about it in public but he made hints that it will be a pro Tour Team. As he was sponsored from Rose during his Crit races maybe it is Unibet Rose?

It was previously rumoured that he would return to Alpecin, but since there's not really a good reason it should take them that long to announce it, I guess it's possible that deal is now off. We know the Roodhoofts are lacking money, but that was exactly why the move made sense in the first place.


The guy's name starts with P so they should obviously have called him Packer-Mann. Why would you choose to make the pun worse? Ok with their bank guarantee issue in mind, perhaps they didn't fancy a possible lawsuit, but I doubt that would be too likely to happen.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1986003500246171729

View: https://x.com/GreenEDGEteam/status/1986003500246171729

 

[yaco]

Jayco will aim for Ackermann to win 1 or 2 races and more importantly get close to 1000 UCI points. I expect he will debut at the Alula Tour, because there is a chance they will get Welsford.

 

[search]

Or maybe it will be Unibet.
Just think of the content as he goes around races, selling cheese to unsuspecting spectators.


Or... it might be a conti team.

Gruppetto-forum rumors are Unibet. that would be great. even just for some French straight-edge fans moaning about Unibet's French license eheh

sounds like it will be Unibet indeed.

Victor Lafay va poursuivre sa carrière chez Unibet Rose Rockets

INFO L'ÉQUIPE. À 29 ans, Victor Lafay a finalement décidé de rester dans le peloton professionnel et a donné son accord ce mercredi à la formation Unibet Rose Rockets pour un contrat d'un an.

www.lequipe.fr

Should secure them the Tour wildcard. A good French rider was exactly what was missing to make it a sure thing

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Did unibet become French? Thoguht they were dutch or something like that?

 

[search]

Did unibet become French? Thoguht they were dutch or something like that?

yeah, last winter already. Gambling sponsorship is not allowed anymore in the Netherlands.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Matthias Schwarzbacher to EF(!?)

Well played, an excellent rider.

 

[Wyndbrook]

Pcs has EF as now reaching 22 riders for next year, must now be close to their usual late signing/resigning season. Plenty of riders on the market this season with no team for next year willing to accept derisively low offers.

 

[pastronef]

yeah, last winter already. Gambling sponsorship is not allowed anymore in the Netherlands.

they also sign Venturini (from the Gruppetto forum)

 

[KoopaCycling]

People be making a big deal of Derek Gee, Remco, Cian.
Meanwhile Lotto & Intermaché can just do what they want.

Now i understand the fusion is happening cause of money(or lack thereof), but the moment they decided to have a fusion, first order of business should have been to decide on their roster, and let the rest known they aren't getting kept on. This should have been done months ago.

 

[Samamba]

People be making a big deal of Derek Gee, Remco, Cian.
Meanwhile Lotto & Intermaché can just do what they want.

Now i understand the fusion is happening cause of money(or lack thereof), but the moment they decided to have a fusion, first order of business should have been to decide on their roster, and let the rest known they aren't getting kept on. This should have been done months ago.

While this whole thing is obviously infuriating, thinking it was possible to do that months ago is naive. You can't know which riders you're gonne keep when you have no idea if the merger is actually happening or at least have 0 idea about your budget. Intermarché only signed on a few weeks ago. And Girmay staying or not plays a big role too. It shouldn't (he's not worth all this) but it does.

It's absolutely impossible to make a roster before everything else. Actually doing that is very problematic cause then you get what's happening now, very unpleasant surprises, like staff being told they can stay but then because they have less budget then they thought they needed to leave after all, or riders being told different things cause the team is forced to make some sort of list when they just don't know themselves completely.

It's very painful, but this is what you get when you only start talking about a merger in july and think it will all go smoothly, when it obviously won't. Or when you're doing a merger with a team that's in debt and doesn't even have it's own main sponsor on board completely. It's a mess.

 

[RedheadDane]

they also sign Venturini (from the Gruppetto forum)

Sorry, but the way it's phrased kinda makes it look like he signed from a team called 'The Gruppetto Forum'.
Which could be the name of some club team, I guess.
Though not one with great aspirations...

 

[KoopaCycling]

While this whole thing is obviously infuriating, thinking it was possible to do that months ago is naive. You can't know which riders you're gonne keep when you have no idea if the merger is actually happening or at least have 0 idea about your budget. Intermarché only signed on a few weeks ago. And Girmay staying or not plays a big role too. It shouldn't (he's not worth all this) but it does.

It's absolutely impossible to make a roster before everything else. Actually doing that is very problematic cause then you get what's happening now, very unpleasant surprises, like staff being told they can stay but then because they have less budget then they thought they needed to leave after all, or riders being told different things cause the team is forced to make some sort of list when they just don't know themselves completely.

It's very painful, but this is what you get when you only start talking about a merger in july and think it will all go smoothly, when it obviously won't. Or when you're doing a merger with a team that's in debt and doesn't even have it's own main sponsor on board completely. It's a mess.

You're trying to talk Lotto & Intermaché out of it. Reality is, merger talks were far enough ahead that it was basically announced as a done deal on 17th July.

 

[Wyndbrook]

Adam Hanson suggesting that Lotto have not been very honest during conversations with the UCI and himself.

 

[Samamba]

You're trying to talk Lotto & Intermaché out of it. Reality is, merger talks were far enough ahead that it was basically announced as a done deal on 17th July.

If you've followed my posts about this merger here you should know that I hate almost everything about it and both sides are led by morons so this is an incredibly stupid way of responding, but I guess it just says you can't.

And no it was never announced as a done deal in July. Hell, teams didn't say anything about it officially till like 3 weeks ago. The press saying things is not the same as announcing something. It is a complete lie that they were "far" into negotiations in July, they weren't at all. This only started just before the Tour when moron Haek thought it would be a good idea to merge with a team with a 2+M debt. They signed a letter of intent about wanting to merge, nothing else. Apart from Lotto 0 sponsors were on board at that time, how can you expect a list of riders then. Again demanding that to be the first order of business like you stated is just naive.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

You're trying to talk Lotto & Intermaché out of it. Reality is, merger talks were far enough ahead that it was basically announced as a done deal on 17th July.

You quite clearly haven't followed the Lotto thread where Samamba is one of the most vocal critics when it comes to this merger.

 

[hayneplane]

Cerny is still looking for a pro deal. If it doesn't work out, he can return to Elkov Kasper

Kuky se vrací 2… Taky Bittner mladší, cyklokrosař Ježek a junior Rejzek posílí Elkov Kasper do další sezóny | RoadCycling.cz

Sestava elitního tuzemského týmu Elkov Kasper posiluje. Staronovou tváří je Michael Kukrle, který hlásí druhý návrat do hradeckého dresu. Ze sousedního ATT Investments přichází také Jan Bittner, mladší bratr úspěšného spurtera Pavla, mj. vítěze etapy na Vueltě. Cyklokrosovou orientaci podpoří i...

www.roadcycling.cz

While Serry retired, there don't seem to be any news about Warlop or Huby. A month ago, both had nothing in sight.

Cerny would be a good signing for Unibet Rockets.

 

[pastronef]

Sorry, but the way it's phrased kinda makes it look like he signed from a team called 'The Gruppetto Forum'.
Which could be the name of some club team, I guess.
Though not one with great aspirations...

I liked and got the joke. you answered to another post of mine with a video but I watched just a few seconds of it and had no idea if that was a joke or a comment