UCI 2026 WorldTour Team Roster Shakeup: 6 Riders Switch Teams, 3 New Teams

The 2026 UCI WorldTour kicks off with significant roster movement across the top teams. Here's a summary of the biggest transfers and team changes.

Top transfersRemco Evenepoel leaves Soudal Quick-Step for Ineos Grenadiers on a 3-year deal worth 鈧?M/yearTadej Poga膷ar signs lifetime deal with UAE Team Emirates XRG (no transfer fee, 鈧?0M/year through 2035)Jonas Vingegaard stays at Visma-Lease a Bike on a 5-year extensionPrimo啪 Rogli膷 leaves Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe for a new team (TBD)Wout van Aert leaves Visma-Lease a Bike for a multi-discipline team (likely Trek)

New teamsDecathlon-AG2R: Merger of AG2R Citro毛n and Decathlon sponsorship. French-registered, Continental Pro level.Uno-X Mobility: Norwegian team moves up from ProSeries to WorldTour. Budget 鈧?5M.Astana Qazaqstan: Re-registered under Kazakh cycling federation after financial troubles in 2025.

Notable departuresSeveral big-name sprinters retired: Mark Cavendish (39, after final Tour de France in 2025), Fabio Jakobsen (28, to focus on track), Sam Bennett (34, Irish track focus).

Tech implicationsThe 2026 WorldTour sees a continued shift toward Colnago, Cerv茅lo, and Specialized in the GC field. Trek's dominance at the Tour (with Vingegaard and Van Aert previously) is reduced. The new tech story is the proliferation of gravel racing 鈥?three new teams are explicitly gravel-focused.