2025 is almost over and the 2026 racing season is only a few short weeks away, with the excitement for the new season now palpable.
The biggest teams have presented their 2026 jersey designs and season goals, so it is time to understand the new balance of power in the men's WorldTour peloton. Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad dominated in 2025, but Visma-Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, and Decathlon CMA CGM all look stronger than ever before. Could 2026 be a season of change?
January also marks the start of a new UCI WorldTour promotion and relegation cycle, with the points total reset to zero and a new three-year ranking about to begin. The biggest teams will fight for the most prestigious races, while others will target UCI ranking points as they battle to avoid possible relegation.
It will be fascinating to see if Pogačar can win Paris-Roubaix or a record-equaling fifth Tour de France, how Remco Evenepoel performs after his transfer to Red Bull, if Olav Kooij can become the best sprinter in the world with Decathlon and if Juan Ayuso can finally show his talent after leaving UAE for Lidl-Trek.
In this comprehensive guide, Cyclingnews takes a closer look at all 18 men's WorldTour teams for the 2026 season, highlighting their new signings and key riders, as well as their weaknesses and ambitions before racing gets underway next month.
Alpecin-Premier Tech
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 9th
- Key riders: Mathieu van der Poel, Jasper Philipsen
- Rider to watch: Tibor del Grosso
The Belgian team secured sponsorship from Premier Tech late in 2025 after the Canadian brand left the troubled Israel team. The funding was too late to stop a haemorrhage of trusted domestiques, but Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen remain as team leaders and as a dangerous Classics and sprint combo.
Thirty-year-old Van der Poel is at the peak of his career and will surely fight for victory in every monument he rides in 2026. Pogačar is again targeting the Classics, but Van der Poel has the bike skills, power and fast finish to beat him at Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Philipsen will focus on the Classics in the spring and then switch to pure sprinting for the Giro and Tour. He crashed hard last spring and then crashed out of the Tour after winning the opening stage in Lille. He will surely win more big sprints in 2026, especially with Van der Poel and fellow Tour stage winner Kaden Groves to give him a world-class lead-out.
Alpecin-Premier Tech lost Gianni Vermeersch to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Fabio Van den Bossche to Soudal-QuickStep and Quinten Hermans to Pinarello-Q36.5, while Edward Planckaert eventually opted to stay loyal. It will be fascinating to see how much Tibor del Grosso can improve in 2026 and if Francesco Busatto can confirm his under-23 talents. Hugo Houle was a late signing thanks to the arrival of Premier Tech, as was Florian Sénéchal from Arkéa-B&B Hotels.
Bahrain Victorious
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 10th
- Key riders: Lenny Martinez, Antonio Tiberi
- Rider to watch: Jakob Omrzel
Bahrain Victorious have Bianchi as a new bike sponsor and have refreshed their colours, but their roster looks very similar to 2025, with Lenny Martinez, Matej Mohorič, Pello Bilbao and Antonio Tiberi as team leaders.
Fred Wright has moved to Pinarello-Q36.5, while Jack Haig has joined Ineos, Torstein Træen returned to Uno-X Mobility and talented British rider Finlay Pickering was snapped up by Jayco AlUla.
Attila Valter joins from Visma-Lease a Bike and Alec Segaert from Lotto, while Bahrain Victorious' biggest signing is 19-year-old Slovenian super talent Jakob Omrzel from their development team. He won the 2025 Giro d'Italia Next Gen and is considered the natural heir to Tadej Pogačar.
Martinez is still only 22 and still very much a work in progress. The Frenchman is a pure climber and has shown flashes of his huge potential but also ensured moments of suffering, especially on the flat and wind-exposed early stages of the Tour. Martinez emulated his grandfather Mariano to pull on the Tour de France polka dot jersey on Bastille Day and eventually finished third in the classification in Paris. Much more will be expected from him in 2026.
The same can be said for Italy's Antonio Tiberi. His time trialling talents make him a Grand Tour contender, but he crashed hard at the 2025 Giro, with veteran Damiano Caruso stepping up to finish fifth in the Corsa Rosa. Tiberi will get a definitive measure of his Grand Tour potential in 2026 when he rides the Tour alongside Martinez. Santiago Buitrago and Caruso are expected to lead Bahrain Victorious at the Giro.
Decathlon CMA CGM Team
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 7th
- Key riders: Paul Seixas, Olav Kooij, Matthew Riccitello
- Rider to watch: Léo Bisiaux
With shipping giant CMA CGM joining Decathlon as a title sponsor, the French team will have the budget and the ambitions of a true super team in 2026.
They have used their reported €45 million budget to sign some of the most promising riders in the peloton. Olav Kooij replaces Sam Bennett as lead sprinter and the 24-year-old Dutchman will surely step up another level in 2026 to challenge Jasper Philipsen and Tim Merlier. Decathlon CMA CGM have also invested in a quality lead-out train for Kooij, signing Cees Bol from Astana and Daan Hoole from Lidl-Trek and Robbe Ghys from Alpecin-Deceuninck, with Mark Renshaw in the team car. Tobias Lund Andresen offers a clever sprinting alternative.
Other new signings include the USA's Matthew Riccitello, Gregor Mühlberger and Tiesj Benoot. The Belgian will surely have far more freedom and leadership opportunities than at Visma-Lease a Bike in the Classics, while Riccitello's fifth place at the Vuelta confirmed his future Grand Tour credentials.
Decathlon CMA CGM's long-term strategy is built around French super talent Paul Seixas, with Johannes Staune-Mittet and Léo Bisiaux as two other riders to watch closely. Twenty-year-old Bisiaux has multiple talents but is not quite as good a climber as Seixas. He could develop into a hilly classics contender or emerge in Grand Tours later in his career, without having to carry the hopes of a nation.
An internal project dubbed 'Tour 2030' aims to help Seixas win the Tour de France by the end of the decade. A French rider has not won the Tour since Bernhard Hinault in 1985, but Seixas appears to have the potential to do it and so ease the nation's existential crisis.
Seixas was junior time trial world champion in 2024 and showed his potential in 2025 by finishing eighth at the Critérium du Dauphiné, winning the Tour de l'Avenir and then fighting for third place in the European Championships and ending his first WorldTour season with seventh at Il Lombardia.
Decathlon CMA CGM have already confirmed that Seixas will target Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, with his Tour debut widely expected in the summer, as Felix Gall focuses on the Giro. It will be fascinating to watch Seixas and the team's progress during 2026.
EF Education-EasyPost
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 12th
- Key riders: Ben Healy, Nielson Powless, Luke Lamperti
- Rider to watch: Mattia Agostinacchio
Jonathan Vaughters' team had a high-quality 2025 season, with Ben Healy's Tour de France stage victory and two days in the yellow jersey the pinnacle of their success. They only won ten races, but there were some memorable victories, including Neilson Powless outwitting Wout van Aert and two other Visma-Lease a Bike riders to win Dwars door Vlaanderen. Richard Carapaz was disappointed to finish third overall at the Giro d'Italia after trying to topple Isaac del Toro, but he also won a stage and proved he is back to near his best.
Vaughters and his experienced staff have refreshed and rejuvenated their roster for 2026. Esteban Chaves and Rui Costa have retired, while junior cyclocross world champion Mattia Agostinacchio steps up directly to the WorldTour, with EF also creating a cyclocross team around him for the winter.
The USA's Luke Lamperti is still only 22 and will surely improve in sprints and the Classics after a knee injury disrupted his 2025 season with Soudal-QuickStep. Britain's Noah Hobbs joins the WorldTour team and has huge potential in fast finishes, while Canada's Michael Leonard and 19-year-old Slovakian time trialist Matthias Schwarzbacher from the UAE Team Emirates Gen Z development squad offer more youthful talent.
Healy, Powless, Carapaz and Kasper Asgreen stand out as team leaders for 2026 as EF Education-EasyPost again target opportunities at the Tour de France and in every race they ride.
Groupama-FDJ United
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 18th
- Key riders: Romain Grégoire, David Gaudu, Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet
- Rider to watch: Maxime Decomble
The French team have a new red and blue jersey as their title sponsor refreshes under the FDJ United banner. However, with no major signings and a few key losses, the team's hopes and ambitions appear the same or weaker in 2026.
Legendary team manager Marc Madiot is no longer in overall charge, with Thierry Cornec taking over more and more as Madiot eases towards retirement. There is a real sense of contraction and change in French cycling, and it appears to be hitting Groupama the most.
The team has lost Classics leader and time trial specialist Stefan Küng to Tudor, while Britain's Lewis Askey moved to NSN Cycling and Sven Erik Bystrøm to Uno-X Mobility. They have signed Bastien Tronchon and Clément Berthet from Decathlon, while 20-year-old talent Maxime Decomble and Titouan Fontaine step up from their Development squad.
Leadership will fall on the shoulders of Romain Grégoire, David Gaudu and Guillaume Martin-Guyonnet. Grégoire's naturally aggressive nature is always entertaining, and one day he could win a hilly Classics or a Tour stage. Gaudu won a stage at the Vuelta but seems far from the rider he once was or seemed destined to be.
Ineos Grenadiers
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 8th
- Key riders: Josh Tarling, Filippo Ganna, Thymen Arensman
- Rider to watch: Kévin Vauquelin
The British team were once dominant in the Grand Tours but endured yet another difficult season in 2025, with few major results and little hope of a turnaround for 2026.
Thymen Arensman impressed with his two Tour de France stage victories, as did Josh Tarling, Filippo Ganna and Ben Turner on their preferred terrains. However, Ineos finished outside the top five in all three Grand Tours and the decision to sign Caleb Ewan proved a failure, with the Australian sprinter opting to retire after just four months in the red and orange Ineos colours.
Dave Brailsford is back as the boss and Geraint Thomas is the Director of Racing, but Ineos face a huge task to rebuild the team and find a new direction. TotalEnergies' sponsorship has filled a gap left by Ineos' budget restraints and sparked the signing of French national champion Dorian Godon and French hero Kévin Vauquelin. Both will surely produce results and interest in France, with TotalEnergies' investment and influence in the team expected to grow in 2027.
Jack Haig is a clever signing as a Grand Tour road captain and role model for the young riders in the team, as is Michał Kwiatkowski's contract extension.
The question is who will win the big races for Ineos in 2026. Ganna and Tarling will be good in time trials, but Ineos needs them to step up in the cobbled Classics alongside Turner, Sam Watson, Connor Swift and Magnus Sheffield. Sam Welsford offers a new sprinting option, but how does that fit into Ineos's wider strategy and who will help the Australian fight for position?
Arensman, Carlos Rodríguez and Egan Bernal will again lead in the Grand Tours and more Tour stage wins have to be the first goal, with the hope of a good GC performance from one of them.
Lidl-Trek
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 3rd
- Key riders: Mads Pedersen, Juan Ayuso, Jonathan Milan
- Rider to watch: Albert Philipsen
While some teams are struggling to find new sponsors and the budget to compete against UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Lidl-Trek are going from strength to strength, with the German-based supermarket chain taking ownership of the team and bringing in new sponsors like Gatorade and ServiceNow, boosting the budget and technology in the team.
Like Decathlon CMA CGM, Lidl-Trek are well-funded, well-managed and ambitious to become a true super team. They won 46 races in 2025 and were third in the UCI team rankings, just below Visma-Lease a Bike.
The signing of Juan Ayuso from UAE means Lidl-Trek finally have a Grand Tour contender and it will be fascinating to see how the Spaniard fits in the team and performs against Pogačar, Vingegaard et al at the 2026 Tour de France. Ayuso has charisma and natural self-confidence, but he can no longer use a lack of leadership opportunities as an excuse.
Lidl-Trek lost Jasper Stuyven to Soudal-QuickStep, Daan Hoole to Decathlon and Tim Declercq retired, but their young riders are emerging fast. It will be fascinating to see what Thibau Nys, Albert Philipsen, Quinn Simmons, Mathias Vacek and Jakob Söderqvist do in 2026.
Mads Pedersen, Jonathan Milan and Mattias Skjelmose are at the peak of their careers and stand out as team leaders alongside Ayuso and Giulio Ciccone. Team manager Luca Guercilena and his staff faced some tough decisions on Grand Tour goals and final rider selection, but Pedersen will surely land a Monument Classic in 2026, while Milan is one of the best sprinters in the world alongside Tim Merlier and Olav Kooij and has new support and wind protection from Max Walscheid.
Skjelmose will be determined to prove he is not just Ayuso's Grand Tour domestique, while Toms Skujiņš, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Simone Consonni, Edward Theuns and Carlos Verona provide the vital core and inspiration for everyone to follow.
Lotto Intermarché
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 23rd
- Key riders: Arnaud De Lie, Lennert Van Eetvelt
- Rider to watch: Jarno Widar
Following months of budget concerns and internal tension, Lotto Intermarché secured a WorldTour licence for 2026, sanctifying their merger and offering the Belgian team a new start for the 2026-2028 WorldTour cycle. Team mergers are never easy and the work is only partially done. It will be up to the riders, new management and performance staff to now get the results.
The team budget may be tight and the roster is not as strong as other teams, but several names stand out. Arnaud De Lie is still only 23 but has already won 33 races and landed some big-race results thanks to his fast finish and determination. He won the Bretagne Classic in 2025 but also secured overall victory in the Renewi Tour stage race and was in the top five on four Tour de France stages.
Crashes and stress disrupted his spring, but he is more than just a sprinter and can surely perform well in Belgium if Lotto Intermarché create a stable and structured environment.
Jarno Widar is only 20 and steps up from the Lotto development team, but will immediately become Lotto Intermarché's stage race leader due to his huge results in under-23 races.
In the last two years, he has won the Giro d'Italia Next Gen, Giro della Valle d'Aosta and the Ronde de l'Isard and was second at this year's Tour de l'Avenir. Those results are all indications of special Grand Tour potential. Talented young riders can now emerge immediately, even at WorldTour level, and if he keeps his cool and is not over-raced, Widar could be the revelation of 2026.
Other key riders at Lotto Intermarché include Lennert Van Eetvelt, the ever-entertaining and innovative Taco van der Hoorn and De Lie's leadout man Jasper De Buyst.
Movistar
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 15th
- Key riders: Enric Mas, Cian Uijtdebroeks
- Rider to watch: Iván Romeo
The Spanish team is often considered one of the dinosaurs of the WorldTour, but is undergoing a quiet revolution as Sebastian Unzué gradually takes over team management from his father Eusebio.
Sebastian is the new Head of Sports, with new managers, including Matt White, overseeing Performance, Racing, Health and Riders. Quantum Pacific Management acquired 43% of the team in the spring and their shipping company, Eastern Pacific Shipping, is now a sponsor.
The roster and team culture remain largely Spanish for 2026, but the signing of Cian Uijtdebroeks indicates their ambitions for the future. Other new signings include Juan Pedro López from Lidl-Trek and Roger Adrià from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
Uijtdebroeks is ambitious, but his injury-hit 2025 season meant he would have very limited Grand Tour leadership opportunities at Visma in 2026. He took control of his own destiny, negotiated his exit from Visma and signed with Movistar in just a few days. He has a four-year contract and seems far happier.
Movistar decided it is time for Uijtdebroeks to make his Tour de France debut in 2026, while long-time leader Enric Mas will try to rebuild his career by riding the Giro and the Vuelta. Other stage race riders include López, Einer Rubio and veteran Nairo Quintana.
Twenty-two-year-old Iván Romeo is also part of the new-look Movistar team and is the current Spanish national champion. He suffered a lot at the 2025 Tour de France but surely learnt a lot too, as he went in the break four times to try to win a stage. He wasthe under-23 time trial world champion in 2024 and so could develop into a Grand Tour contender in the years to come.
NSN Cycling Team
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 14th
- Key riders: Biniam Girmay, Stevie Williams
- Rider to watch: Joe Blackmore
NSN Cycling have announced new owners and investors, a stunning new racing kit and the arrival of Biniam Girmay as they move away from their troubled past as Israel-Premier Tech and rebuild for 2026.
The pro-Palestine protests at the Vuelta a España almost stopped the race and led to the formal exit of team owner Sylvan Adams. Premier Tech and bike sponsor Factor terminated their contracts. The future's team looked at risk. Fortunately, small Spanish sports and entertainment company Never Say Never (NSN) and its much bigger investor Stoneweg stepped in to save the team.
Girmay and a number of riders opted to join NSN, as they stepped away from their chaotic teams. Girmay joined from Intermarché, while Ryan Mullen, Lewis Askey and Alessandro Pinarello came onboard with other riders from the development team. 2025 was the last season of Chris Froome's time at the team, with Michael Woods also retiring and Pascal Ackermann moving on to Jayco AlUla and Matthew Riccitello to Decathlon.
"Welcoming NSN and Stoneweg, new bike supplier Scott, and continuing the journey with Ekoï and other key sponsors has put us in an excellent position to really hit the ground running," team manager Kjell Carlström claimed.
"We will have a major focus on sprint races, but equally, I believe we can achieve outstanding results in stage races and Grand Tours as stage hunters and really make our mark on the peloton in 2026."
The 30-rider 2026 roster includes fast finishers Jake Stewart, Corbin Strong and Ethan Vernon, while Hugo Hofstetter, Alexey Lutsenko and Marco Frigo are proven points scorers as the battle for WorldTour survival starts afresh in 2026.
Carlström will be hoping Joe Blackmore and Stevie Williams can return to their best in the Ardennes Classics and stage races and also help write a successful new chapter after the turmoil and change of 2025.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 6th
- Key riders: Remco Evenepoel, Primož Roglič, Florian Lipowitz
- Rider to watch: Giulio Pellizzari
Team owner Ralph Denk started his team 15 years ago and has gradually grown and developed the German-based team year on year. 2026 should be the team's biggest and best season of all, with the Red Bull investment and sponsorship funding the step-up to super team status.
Remco Evenepoel bought his way out of his contract with Soudal-QuickStep to join for 2026 and he will target the Tour de France with 2025 revelation and in-house talent Florian Lipowitz. They will ride the same race programme and even train at altitude together to avoid any internal rivalry.
The changes have pushed Primož Roglič down the leadership hierarchy, but he seems happy with leadership for the Vuelta and a chance to win the Spanish Grand Tour for a fifth and probably final time in his career. Giulio Pellizzari and Jai Hindley will lead the line in the Giro.
Red Bull's Classics group flopped in 2025, but they have been given a second chance in 2026, with Gianni Vermeersch the only major addition. Red Bull may struggle in the cobbled Classics but have Jordi Meeus, Gianni Moscon and Laurence Pithie on the books, with Maxim Van Gils and Finn Fisher-Black suited to the Ardennes, where Evenepoel will surely lead.
Red Bull's Rookies development team has offered a successful pathway to the WorldTour for some of the sport's biggest talents and so watch for Emil Herzog and 2026 graduates Luke Tuckwell of Australia and Britain's Callum Thornley, with under-23 world champion Lorenzo Finn to join them in 2027.
The team fuelled the transfer market for performance staff in 2025, hiring Dan Bigham and a host of other coaches. Denk shook up the sporting side and added more expertise and experience for 2026, with Zak Dempster having overall control as Chief of Racing, while Allan Peiper is a strategic advisor. A big budget and long-term project appears to have given the team bigger wings than any energy drink.
Soudal-QuickStep
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 5th
- Key riders: Paul Magnier, Tim Merlier
- Rider to watch: Ethan Hayter
The self-styled 'Wolfpack' will have a new-look green and blue jersey and a new sprints and Classics focus for 2026 as the Belgian team rebuilds in their post-Remco Evenepoel world.
The loss of their team leader could have been a traumatic and bitter divorce, but the team's sponsors clearly accepted they could not match Red Bull's deep pockets and Grand Tour ambitions and so pivoted back to their Classics roots.
New signings for 2026 include Dylan van Baarle, Jasper Stuyven, Steff Cras and Fabio Van den Bossche, while Alberto Dainese was hired as an extra sprinter. Mattia Cattaneo left for Red Bull with Evenepoel, while Luke Lamperti moved on to EF.
Soudal-QuickStep are hoping Paul Magnier will continue his prolific development as a sprinter and Classics rider and he will be mentored by Van Baarle and Stuyven. The 21-year-old French rider races with natural confidence and won 19 races in 2025, including four stages at the CRO Race and five at the Tour of Guangxi. He has been compared to former Soudal rider Tom Boonen and could go on to have a similar career, packed with Classics success and sprint wins
Tim Merlier remains Soudal's number 1 sprinter despite Magnier's talents. The quiet-speaking but fearless sprinter is arguably the best in the world at what he does and so will again lead at the Tour de France, while Magnier chases stages at the Giro d'Italia.
Merlier's two Tour de France sprint wins and 14 other victories in 2025 came thanks to a great lead-out from loyal friend Bert Van Lerberghe but also from Merlier's unmatchable late surge. The arrival of Stuyven to bolster the lead-out, as he did so well for Pedersen and Milan at Lidl-Trek should mean Merlier again wins often and a lot.
The loss of Evenepoel creates opportunities for everyone in the team, including stage races and climbers like Mikel Landa, Mount Ventoux stage winner Valentin Paret-Peintre, Ilan Van Wilder and a rejuvenated Ethan Hayter.
Team Jayco AlUla
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 16th
- Key riders: Ben O'Connor, Michael Matthews, Luke Plapp
- Rider to watch: Alessandro Covi
The Australia team briefly appeared at risk as team owner and long-term backer Gerry Ryan pushed for more funding from key sponsors AlUla and Giant late in 2025. They eventually stepped up, and so did Ryan, with the riders doing their part by scoring enough UCI points to secure a place in the 2026-2028 WorldTour.
Jayco AlUla have changed a third of their roster for 2026, with Dylan Groenewegen moving to Unibet Rose Rockets and Eddie Dunbar and Chris Harper to Pinarello-Q36.5. Interesting new signings include Pascal Ackermann, Alessandro Covi from UAE and Finlay Pickering from Bahrain Victorious. Hamish McKenzie steps up from the Hagens Berman Jayco team.
Ben O'Connor and Michael Matthews will again lead the team in stage races and Classics, respectively, with the whole team focusing on points scoring to avoid any risk of another relegation battle.
"I'm not saying we're going to race like XDS Astana, but we're going to strategically look at the races where we can pick up points," team manager Brent Copeland told Cyclingnews during the winter.
After the surprise dismissal of Matt White, Gene Bates has been appointed as the new sporting manager of the men's team and will lead that strategy.
"Teams are desperate to hit the ground running in 2026, to make sure they're sitting in a safe spot for the three-year sporting criteria and so the next WorldTour spots," he said.
The hunt for points could see O'Connor forego a fight for the GC in the Tour de France so he can target other stage races and hilly Classics during the season and then select specific stages at the Tour.
Team Picnic PostNL
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 17th
- Key riders: Oscar Onley, Max Poole
- Rider to watch: Mattia Gaffuri
Picnic PostNL will again be in the men's WorldTour in 2026, but team manager Iwan Spekenbrink always had to fight to keep his team alive, balancing his budget and team philosophy with the need to score UCI ranking points.
The Dutch team has undergone several title sponsor changes over the years, but the innovative online supermarket Picnic and the Dutch PostNL service remain for 2026. Spekenbrink has only been given a one-year licence by the UCI, but the team is confident a title sponsor will extend their support to ensure WorldTour status in 2027 and 2028.
Romain Bardet retired from road racing after the Critérium du Dauphiné, but the roster remains largely the same due to budget restrictions, with James Knox the biggest of eight new signings.
Oscar Onley stepped up to fill Bardet's shoes in 2025 and his impressive fourth in the 2025 Tour de France, fourth at the Tour Down Under and third at the Tour de Suisse provided the UCI points to avoid WorldTour relegation. However, that made Onley a target for numerous rival teams, and it looks like he could be off to Ineos Grenadiers in 2026, with little time for Picnic to fill the gap he would leave.
Picnic PostNL are hoping that other riders will return to their best in 2026 to help chase UCI points. Sprinter Fabio Jakobsen needed surgery on a narrowed iliac leg artery but was back racing in late summer, while Max Poole fractured his collarbone at Strade Bianche, recovered to ride the Giro, but was then struck by Epstein-Barr virus, ending his season. They form the core of the team along with road captain John Degenkolb, fast finisher Pavel Bittner and Frank van den Broek.
It will be fascinating to see what Italy's Mattia Gaffuri can do after developing via the rebel Swatt Club amateur team.
Visma-Lease a Bike
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 2nd
- Key riders: Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert, Simon Yates
- Rider to watch: Matthew Brennan
Visma-Lease a Bike have bravely taken the fight to UAE Team Emirates-XRG in recent years. They are a true super team, driven by excellent management and cutting-edge performance support and bike tech. In 2023, they won all three Grand Tours but had to accept second best to Pogačar in the 2024 and 2025 Tour de France. Simon Yates' victory in the Giro and Vingegaard's win in the Vuelta helped ease the sense of defeat, but there is a sense that the team's current roster may have already reached its peak.
Visma won 40 races in 2025 but have lost Olav Kooij and Tiesj Benoot to Decathlon, while Dylan van Baarle has moved to Soudal-QuickStep. Talented Italian Davide Piganzoli is a strategic new signing, but other new names suggest a tightening in the team budget as salaries and costs rise and UAE continue to spend more.
Jonas Vingegaard will again lead Visma's Tour de France ambitions, but could be tempted to also ride the Giro d'Italia to complete his Grand Tour triple crown. Wout van Aert remains the Classics leader and Tour stage hunter, with US rider Matteo Jorgenson's talents allowing him to ride alongside Van Aert in the spring and then with Vingegaard in the high mountains of the summer.
Jorgenson and Yates are real GC alternatives and vital support for Vingegaard after flourishing as part of Visma's programme, while Sepp Kuss and Christophe Laporte will be hoping to return to their best after under-par 2025 seasons. Victor Campenaerts is the exemplary domestique who does the hard work on the front and keeps up morale with his amusing vlogs from inside the Visma team bus.
Jørgen Nordhagen is the team's GC rider for the future, with Matthew Brennan already proving he is Van Aert's heir apparent. Brennan is only 20 but won 12 races in 2025. Visma rightly moved quickly to extend his contract and invest in his future success.
Like Van Aert, Brennan is fast in a sprint but can do so much more, with a tactical ability way beyond his years. He could be the revelation of 2026, with even a major Classics within his reach if Van Aert struggles.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 1st
- Key riders: Tadej Pogačar, Isaac del Toro, João Almeida
- Rider to watch: Benoît Cosnefroy
UAE Team Emirates-XRG dominated the sport in 2025 and there is no reason why they won't dominate in 2026 and long into the future thanks to Tadej Pogačar, Isaac del Toro, João Almeida and a host of ambitious young riders below them in the team's rich roster.
Pogačar is a generational talent, the Merckx of his age, without any need for comparison. He is both dominant and humble, a Cannibal with a smiling face.
He won 20 races, including his fourth Tour de France, another Tour of Flanders, a third Liège-Bastogne-Liège and a second world title. His defeats at Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race stand out because he went close to victory in all of them.
Pogačar loves a challenge and so will return to the Italian Riviera and Roubaix cobbles in 2026, searching for victory before targeting a record-equalling fifth Tour. Can anything but a crash or injury stop him? Surely not.
UAE's strength in depth and constant ambition helped them win a record-breaking 97 races in 2025. Defeat in the Giro hurt, but the team will return for revenge next May, with Almeida and Adam Yates named as team leaders. Del Toro appears to be Pogačar's chosen son and will make his Tour de France debut in 2026 to learn from and support his leader.
Juan Ayuso has left for Lidl-Trek, but that contract-breaking deal has only boosted the UAE coffers for years to come. Only a budget cap of some kind can redress their dominance of the sport.
Pogačar also leads the Classics squad due to his myriad of talents, alongside Nils Politt, António Morgado, Mikkel Bjerg, Florian Vermeersch and Tim Wellens, with Benoît Cosnefroy offering extra punch and aggression after his surprise move to the team for 2026.
Future talents include Pablo Torres and 19-year-old neo-pro Adrià Pericas, with every rider on the 30-rider roster capable of winning races.
Uno-X Mobility
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 11th
- Key riders: Søren Wærenskjold, Magnus Cort
- Rider to watch: Jonas Abrahamsen
While professional cycling struggles and contracts in France and Italy, the success of Uno-X Mobility means cycling is on the rise in Scandinavia and especially Norway and Denmark, where a new generation of riders is emerging.
Uno-X Mobility's biggest success was securing promotion to the 2026 WorldTour. Søren Wærenskjold won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Jonas Abrahamsen won a stage of the Tour and Sakarias Koller Løland celebrated promotion to the WorldTour by winning the end-of-season Veneto Classic. Magnus Cort and retiring Alexander Kristoff did not win big, but like so many other riders, they contributed a haul of UCI ranking points that lifted Uno-X Mobility above Cofidis.
Team manager Thor Hushovd now has to build on 2025 and compete at WorldTour level in 2026. He has the long-term financial support of Uno-X and has signed Sven Erik Bystrøm, Anthon Charmig and Vuelta red jersey-wearer Torstein Træen.
Uno-X Mobility don't yet have an out-and-out Grand Tour contender just yet, but Johannes Kulset and Tobias Halland Johanessen, sixth in the Tour this year, are names to remember. The team only signs Norwegian and Danish riders for now but this could change in the years to come.
XDS Astana
- UCI World Ranking 2025: 4th
- Key riders: Christian Scaroni, Diego Ulissi, Simone Velasco
- Rider to watch: Alberto Bettiol
XDS Astana pulled off a miracle in 2025, scoring enough UCI points to avoid relegation and secure WorldTour status in 2026.
Alexander Vinokourov's squad looked in big trouble in 2024, but the arrival of Chinese bike brand XDS injected vital fresh blood into the team's budget and inspired a revolution in the way the team worked.
The miracle was built on hard work, rider and staff talent and a determination to pursue ranking points. Head of Performance Vasilis Anastopoulos and Sports Manager Maurizio Mazzoleni managed the change, with support from Performance Engineer Alex Dowsett and even Data Scientist Morgan Saussine.
Saussine helped design XDS Astana's race programme and strategy based on the best way to score points. It was the Moneyball version of pro cycling, with riders hired for their point-scoring ability and then sent to target points rather than victory. It may have irked some purists, but it proved to be highly effective. XDS Astana won 32 races and took 72 podium places, finishing fourth in the 2025 UCI team ranking.
They will have to repeat their success in 2026, while other teams imitate them. The roster is largely unchanged, but XDS Astana have lost Wout Poels to Unibet Rose Rockets and Cees Bol to Decathlon.
Team leadership and points scoring will again depend on Alberto Bettiol, Lorenzo Fortunato, sprinters Aaron Gate and Matteo Malucelli, Christian Scaroni, Diego Ulissi and Simone Velasco.
