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Pro cycling transfers 2024/2025: Alaphilippe quits Quickstep, Hirschi to Tudor and Labous moves to FDJ
It’s all kicking off in the 2025 pro cycling transfer market. As we have now passed the watershed opening to the transfer market on 1st August, and so moves can start to be revealed publicly.
This means teams and riders can finally put us out of our misery and share the news of who’s gone where for 2025, but the rumours will keep on circling until all rosters are filled.
For the men, Simon Yates and Jai Hindley are among the hottest properties on the transfer market this year. There are also plenty of rumours brewing around riders cutting ties early. On the women’s side, Tour de France Femmes champion Demi Vollering is expected to move away from SD Worx-Protime, Visma-Lease a Bike are rumoured to be signing MTB World and Olympics champ Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and Elisa Longo Borghini is on the market.
Confirmed: Julian Alaphilippe will leave Soudal-Quickstep
Ahead of Klassikoa on Saturday, Alaphilippe shared the news that he will be leaving Soudal-Quickstep. In an interview, he said: ‘My decision has been made and I will communicate about it soon. Nothing has been signed yet, but in my mind the deal is done.’
This will end a turbulent decade with the Belgian squad led by Patrick Lefevre. Their relationship soured over the past two years and it became clear earlier in the year that Alaphilippe, a double world champion, would be heading elsewhere. Currently, Tudor Pro Cycling are leading the charge for Alaphilippe’s signature. The rider himself shared that he had made up his mind, and it has now been circling for at least a month that Alapahilippe would join Cancellara’s Swiss team.
Lefevre seems optimistic about Alaphilippe’s chances of staying with the team, saying, ‘If he chooses with his heart, then I think he will stay with us [Soudal Quickstep]’. The Belgian manager of the team also suggested that TotalEnergies and Tudor have been in contact with the Frenchman regarding his 2025 contract.
It has also been confirmed that Dane Kasper Asgreen will leave the team along with Jan Hirt who finished inside the top 10 of the Giro d’Italia this year.
Confirmed: Juliette Labous moves to FDJ-Suez
Juliette Labous, an eternal fixture in the top five of women’s Grand Tour GCs, has announced her departure from Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL. After riding for the German team since 2017, when Labous was just 17 years old, the French rider will move across to FDJ-Suez.
Labous has signed a three-year contract, which will see her through until her 29th birthday. Labous will join Demi Vollering at FDJ-Suez if we are to believe the rumours. Évita Muzic will also provide another key card for FDJ-Suez next year. With these signings, FDJ-Suez is quickly becoming a super-team within the women’s peloton.
‘French champion and top five in the last two Tours de France, Juliette is a remarkable athlete and undeniably one of the best climbers in the professional peloton,’ says FDJ-Suez’s team’s general manager Stephen Delcourt. ‘We are also honoured by Juliette’s confidence in our project and our vision. Her arrival is another step towards realising our sporting ambitions,’ he continues.
Confirmed: Marc Hirschi signs for Tudor Pro Cycling
Fresh from a UCI WorldTour victory at the Klassikoa, Marc Hirschi has confirmed his transfer to Tudor Pro Cycling. The Swiss team headed by Fabian Cancellara has been growing in the past few seasons. As shown by making their Grand Tour debut at the Giro this year, the squad has been rising through the ranks courtesy of some big-name transfers such as Alberto Dainese, Arvid de Kleijn, Michael Storer and Matteo Trentin.
Hirschi will lead the squad’s Classics line-up in the years to come. Tudor have secured some top-tier race invites including Paris-Nice and Tirenno-Adriatico. The Swiss team is not far off from a promotion to the UCI WorldTour in the next five years. With all-stars like Hirschi, they could garner more attention and wildcard invitations to achieve this goal.
This transfer brings to an end Hirschi’s four-year-long partnership with UAE Team Emirates. He signed for the team at the beginning of 2021 after an abrupt divorce with Team DSM. Since then, Hirschi has scored some solid one-day victories, but he only made two Grand Tour appearances during his four seasons at the team.
Confirmed: Simon Yates to Visma-Lease a Bike
It has been formally announced this month that Simon Yates’s next destination will be Visma-Lease a Bike. The British rider has penned a contract with the team until 2026.
Despite previous interest from Israel-Premier Tech, Dutch squad Visma-Lease a Bike won the hunt for Yates’s signature after a lacklustre performance at the 2024 Tour de France. Much like his brother Adam at UAE, Simon will be hoping to star in a powerful mountain train at future Tours de France.
Visma-Lease a Bike director Grischa Niermann said that Yates would provide ‘a significant boost for the general classification squad. Simon will have the opportunity to go for his own results with us, but he will also be a valuable asset for the team in the mountains.’
After ten years spent at Jayco-AlUla, this will mark the end of one of cycling’s longest-running partnerships, which saw Yates claim a Vuelta a España victory and a Giro d’Italia podium.
In a quest to strengthen its grip on the Classics, Visma-Lease a Bike has also announced the signing of French rider Alex Zingle from Cofidis.
Confirmed: Ben O’Connor and Co. to Jayco-AlUla
Jayco-AlUla have announced that they will replace Simon Yates with Perth-born Ben O’Connor. High in confidence from a fourth-place finish at the Giro in May, O’Connor will lead Jayco-AlUla’s Tour de France hopes for at least the next two seasons. Despite his Australian nationality, O’Connor has never ridden for the GreenEdge project.
‘To be honest, it’s really an idea I’ve always loved; to race as an Aussie and win on an Aussie team,’ O’Connor told the press following the announcement on Thursday. ‘I’m at a point now where I need to deliver, so it’ll be even more special to do it with an Australian set-up. To have the opportunity to race with mates at the top level is rare, and I am just so keen to get stuck in.’
Along with O’Connor, Paul Double, Koen Bouwman and Patrick Gamper will join the squad. All three of these riders are string climbers. Bouwman won the maglia azzurra at the Giro d’Italia in 2022 while Paul Double finished in 3rd place overall at the Tour of Turkey.
Confirmed: Alexey Lutsenko to Israel-Premier Tech
A frontman for Astana Qazaqstan, Alexey Lutsenko will leave the Kazakh squad after 12 years spent with the team. In exchange, Lutsenko will move to Israel-Premier Tech for the next seasons. The 31-year-old has finished in the top 10 of the Tour twice with the Kazakh team and has claimed Tour and Vuelta stages while riding in the baby blue of Astana.
‘After 12 great years with Astana, I am looking for the motivation I need to achieve new goals,’ explains Lutensko. ‘Sometimes you need to leave your comfort zone to achieve something new. I have nothing but good things to say about my time with Astana Qazaqstan Team, I achieved a lot and I’m grateful for this team, but I feel I have the potential to do more in a new environment.’
This move comes after Astana announced a future collaboration with Chinese carbon fibre company XDS. The team will evolve into a Chinese-Kazakh squad with a roster that might include the current Italian champion Alberto Bettiol.
Confirmed: Maximilian Schachmann returns to Soudal-Quickstep
Maximilian Schachmann, a native of Berlin, will return to his former team Soudal-Quickstep for the next two years. This comes after a brewing battle for the German’s signature. This involved Team Jayco-AlUla, Bora themselves and Quickstep according to reports. Lefevre’s team officially confirmed the transfer earlier this week.
Schachmann has scored some big results during his time at Bora. In 2020 and 2021, Schachmann secured back-to-back Paris-Nice wins along with monument podiums at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and two national titles.
The now 30-year-old made his big Grand Tour debut with Quickstep back in 2018. At that race, the Giro d’Italia, he wore the white jersey for a couple of stages before winning his only Grand Tour stage to date at Prato Nevoso. The all-rounder will be looking to evoke these memories in the years to come.
Confirmed: Alberto Bettiol to Astana
A shock move to some, the Tuscan Alberto Bettiol has left EF Education-First. With this, it has been confirmed that Alberto Bettiol has received a strong offer from Astana Qazaqstan, soon to be rebranded to XDS following the change of sponsors. Gazzetta Dello Sport correctly reported that Bettiol would move as soon as mid-August 2024. This means he is now contracted with Astana until 2027.
The reasons for this transfer seem unknown. Bettiol has been with EF on and off since the beginning of his career. He has been given leadership roles and a chance to flourish in one-day races and stage races alike.
With the Italian jersey on his back, Astana will be glad to welcome back the tricolore jersey. Astana are in desperate need of some UCI points. The squad look poised for relegation if they don’t improve on their results in the next year. If this continues, the squad’s relegation would come into effect in 2026.
Rumour: Tom Pidcock could leave Ineos
Following a gold medal in the men’s cross-country event at the Paris 2024 Olympics, it is rumoured that Tom Pidcock will leave Ineos Grenadiers. Reports state that Pidcock is looking to cut his deal with Ineos Grenadiers early and that he ‘could be on the transfer market in a matter of weeks’ according to Daniel Benson.
It is rumoured that two teams are in the running for Pidcock: Lidl-Trek and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is a natural match. The team has hosted mountain bikers before, including Victor Koretzky who won the silver medal in Paris. Pidcock is also already a Red Bull UK athlete and works closely with the brand.
Lidl-Trek have received a big budget increase too, plus Trek already have a mountain bike team and the squad have added more multi-discipline riders over the past two seasons.
These rumours come alongside Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s Ineos departure. The women’s cross-country World and Olympic champion will reportedly move to Visma-Lease a Bike to return to road racing, with her sights set on the Tour de France. With her exit, Ineos’s women’s project looks to be coming to an end.
Rumour: Elisa Longo Borghini to UAE Team ADQ
A stalwart of Lidl-Trek’s dominance in the women’s peloton, Elisa Longo Borghini is set to leave the American squad at the end of 2024. This will see the end of a five-year-long stint with the team that has carried her to Paris-Roubaix and Ronde van Vlaanderen glory.
The Italian’s departure was confirmed after the Vuelta Femenina by Lidl-Trek team manager Luca Guercilena in Italian newspaper Gazzetta Dello Sport. Guercilena also confirmed that Lidl-Trek tried to extend the contract of the Italian national champion, but she has decided that her future lies elsewhere.
The destination has emerged to be UAE Team ADQ. The team currently includes riders such as Silvia Persico and Karlijn Swinkels for support. The roster is not as deep as Lidl-Trek’s, so Longo Borghini will likely have to rely on her own expertise at her new destination.
At her former team Lidl-Trek, Gaia Realini will now assume the GC leader position after having extended her contract until 2027.
Rumour: Demi Vollering to leave SD Worx
In March, GCN broke the news that Demi Vollering will be leaving SD Worx-Protime at the end of 2024. After a partnership that has resulted in Classics victories and a Tour de France Femmes title, the Dutch champion will go elsewhere for 2025.
Although it’s perhaps not a surprise given the increasing powers of Lotte Kopecky and return of Anna van der Breggen next season, Vollering is the biggest name in the women’s market this year and there is a fierce and exclusive battle for her signature.
Sources disclose that Vollering’s agent was in serious talks with Lidl-Trek up until the Tour of Flanders when the American team pulled back their interest in support of their current roster’s future objectives.
FDJ-Suez remain a strong contender, but the viability of this rumour is up in the air as the team lays eyes on other objectives. Elsewhere, UAE Team ADQ have fallen out of the mix.
Vollering, who according to sources has been offered a €1 million per year contract, is running out of options if she wants to remain adamant about a move away from SD Worx. We wait with bated breath to see who enters the ring as Vollering’s future home.
Other men’s rumours
There are plenty of rumours awaiting confirmation within the men’s peloton.
Giro d’Italia stage winner Valentin Paret-Peintre looks set to move to Soudal-QuickStep. He will leave his older brother Aurélien at Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale in favour of supporting Remco Evenepoel’s GC hopes. Ethan Hayter, the current British champion, is also expected to move across to Soudal-Quickstep in 2025.
Evenepoel’s current domestiques Fausto Masnada and Jan Hirt are reported to be on the move for 2025. The former, a podium finisher at Il Lombardia, will move to the Swiss-South African Continental squad Q36.5, while Hirt, a top ten finisher at the Giro on two occasions, will head to Israel-Premier Tech. Alex Aranburu is rumoured to be heading out of Movistar in favour of Cofidis.
In terms of confirmations, Emanuel Buchmann has finally signed for Cofidis, Laurence Pithie and Finn Fisher-Black bring two Kiwis into Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Simon Carr has signed for Cofidis from EF. As we previously reported, Jonathan Narváez and Florian Vermeersch have signed contracts for 2025 with UAE Team Emirates.
Other women’s rumours
For the women, Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes have penned hefty contract extensions until 2028. They are no longer available for 2025.
There are big changes expected at Canyon-SRAM. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig looks set to make the jump from FDJ-Suez to Canyon-SRAM for 2025. The potential arrival of Demi Vollering and the current rise of French climber Évita Muzic threaten Uttrup Ludwig’s niche within the team. Chiara Consonni, already a stage winner at the Giro d’Italia Women, is also linked to Canyon-SRAM. This means that Consonni will exit UAE Team ADQ before the rumoured signing of Elisa Longo Borghini comes into effect.
Curious where the money for these big contracts comes from? Brush up our breakdown of all the WorldTour team sponsors
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