Another important transfer market – analysing the sports directors and key staff changing teams for 2026

Cycling's off-season, and the winter, is an important time in the world of transfers, as riders start to wrap up their time with their old team and head to training camps with their new one, laying out goals and plans for the season.

However, as well as the rider transfer market, which has been rumbling on since August 1 and is still seeing the final moves made, there's another world of transfers that can be almost as influential as the riders themselves. We're talking about team staff, and the shuffle of sports directors and senior managers that happens every off-season.

These moves often aren't publicised in the same way rider signings are, but they can be really important, given how much tactics and rider management can play into a team's success. Having a great mind and a good motivator behind the wheel of the car can be as important to winning as the strength of the legs on the bike.

This year, some of the key staff moves have been driven by the biggest rider moves, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe overhauling their staffing as they welcome Remco Evenepoel, who has also brought some key figures with him from Soudal-QuickStep and the Belgian national team.

Elsewhere, Ineos Grenadiers look set to lose some key DSs, and welcome some riders into new roles – including Geraint Thomas – whilst some influential directors from the women's peloton are on the move, too.

We also have some hints at what riders are seeking a director job next year, thanks to seeing who undertook the UCI sports director training course in Aigle in October.

Here's a breakdown of some of the key moves we know about so far – we'll add more as we get them – and our analysis of what it all means.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

The most substantial changes seem to have happened at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, as they prepare for the arrival of Remco Evenepoel. They ousted almost their entire directing staff after the Tour de France, including Chief of Sports Rolf Aldag, Bernie Eisel, Heinrich Haussler and Enrico Gasparotto.

This was to make room for a sweeping round of changes that mark the start of a new era for the team with Evenepoel. So far, they've named Zak Dempster as Chief of Sports, alongside Oli Cookson as Head of Racing, both from Ineos Grenadiers, whilst Evenepoel is bringing former Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout with him, as well as Soudal-QuickStep DS Klaas Lodewyck.

The arrival of not one but two DSs already part of 'Team Remco' is telling, and reveals how much Red Bull are buying into the project. If it wasn't clear already, he is going to be the figurehead of the team, as much as riders like Primož Roglič and Florian Lipowitz might be hoping otherwise.

The team has also moved John Wakefield, who headed up the highly successful development branch of the team, into the position of Director of Coaching, Sports Science and Technical Development. Whatever he was doing with the Rookies and juniors was working, so they'll be hoping he can work his magic with the WorldTour team as well.

Recruiting Dempster as their new Chief of Sport is a canny move, too, with the Aussie director quietly establishing himself as a really smart and hardworking tactician over at Ineos. Red Bull clearly want to start a new chapter in 2026, and though it seems dramatic to gut your staff and replace almost all the key players, that is the best way to truly start afresh with a new ethos and ambitions.

Ineos Grenadiers

As above, Ineos Grenadiers are set to lose Zak Dempster, who has been their most senior DS since the departure of Steve Cummings, and a big driving force behind the more impassioned, opportunistic way of racing at Ineos this year. His success there has certainly earned him a step up to work with a 'Big Three' rider, but it's definitely a loss for Ineos that they might struggle to fill. They can recruit some ex-riders, but they'll miss Dempster's experience as a DS, and whatever his ethos and method were, they were beginning to really work.

As stated, it's not just Dempster who is swapping Ineos for Red Bull, with Cookson following his colleague in moving to the German team. Another key part of the Ineos approach in 2025, it's no surprise that Red Bull were interested in bringing both DSs across, but it deepens the loss for the British team.

It's not fully clear yet how Ineos might fill these gaps. Geraint Thomas has long been linked to a new senior role at the team, but that's widely expected to be in a role liaising between riders and management, rather than a traditional DS role, and we can confirm he hasn't been to the UCI to get his DS license, so we won't be behind the wheel in that sense.

They may look to Salvatore Puccio as a recently retired pro to move into a staff role, and they had at least three team members getting their licenses at the UCI last month, including Ben Swift. It's not yet been confirmed whether Swift will retire this year or race for one more year, but in any case, he seems to be getting primed for a DS role.

Bahrain Victorious

Bahrain Victorious are another team who are benefiting from the exodus at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, and they've picked up Enrico Gasparotto. This should be a good addition to the team, who somewhat struggled for results in 2025, and haven't always had the most well-known DSs in their roster. Gasparotto also spent two years riding for Bahrain when he was still racing, so he should know the atmosphere and culture well, which is always a good place to start as a new staff member; it makes the transition smoother.

Movistar

Like Red Bull – though not to the same extent – Movistar have had something of a team overhaul this off-season, announcing a restructuring of their management team. They're establishing four key departments, each with their own dedicated manager, in the areas of performance, racing, health and riders. Existing manager Sebastián Unzué is heading up the management as Head of Sports, but the most exciting move is that they've brought in Matt White to co-lead the racing department.

White is an extremely experienced and respected director who left Jayco AlUla earlier this year, where he was performance director. The exact reasons for his departure have never been made public, but were likely to do with the team's lack of results in recent years – however, that doesn't change the level of expertise he can bring to Movistar. He also used to ride for the team, which, as we've already said, can be a big plus in many ways. After a long time at Jayco, this could be a fresh start for White and a fresh new perspective for Movistar, as they welcome Cian Uijtdebroeks as a new GC contender.

UAE Team ADQ

There haven't been a huge number of staff reshuffles on the women's side yet – though moves will definitely come – but one we picked up on was Michel Cornelisse moving from Fenix-Deceuninck to UAE Team ADQ. Now, Cornelisse might not be a name most people are familiar with, but he was a really influential figure at Fenix-Deceuninck as they moved up to the WorldTour, particularly working with Puck Pieterse and Pauliena Rooijakkers in their Classics and Grand Tour exploits. The team can put a lot of their success and cohesion down to him, his planning, and his approach to supporting riders, so it will be a loss for them and a gain for UAE Team ADQ.

UAE have been gradually building and expanding their project – which reportedly has a very big budget – and continue to step up after the arrival of Elisa Longo Borghini last year. Of course, they've also signed Rooijakkers for next year, who has raced under Cornelisse for some time now, and it sounds like they have a positive relationship if UAE have recruited them both at the same time. Alongside Cherie Pridham, the arrival of Cornelisse means there will be lots of directing experience at UAE next year, to match their strengthening squad.

Human Powered Health

Human Powered Health recruited a new head sports director over the summer in the form of Magnus Bäckstedt. He's a name that needs little introduction, given the fame of his Paris-Roubaix victory, and he's become a respected director in the women's peloton, although he has bounced around a little, from Canyon-SRAM and to Cofidis most recently. Hopefully, Human Powered Health can be a longer-term project where his approach and ideas can come to life.

Jayco AlUla & Liv AlUla Jayco

After letting Matt White go in May, Jayco AlUla and Liv AlUla Jayco haven't rushed to replace him immediately, clearly looking for a longer-term solution and strategy for their management, but they seem to have come to a decision now.

They recently announced that Gene Bates will step up as sporting manager of the men's team, after six seasons with the team, having led the women's arm until 2019. He's also done a lot of work for AusCycling, including being in the car as Grace Brown sped to Olympic time trial victory last summer.

In the women's team, Wim Stroetinga has been appointed sporting manager, after joining the team as a DS in 2024.

Interestingly, having these two roles separate is different to what Matt White did, who headed up performance across the two teams. There's no great consensus in the WorldTour about whether a united performance department works better than separate operations, and teams do it all in different kinds of ways, but there are definitely benefits to sharing expertise across the two teams. That said, separating them can also allow for more bespoke strategies.

It's also interesting that GreenEdge have decided to promote existing directors to these more senior roles, rather than bring in a new person at a senior level (at this point, at least). Deep understanding of how a team and their riders work is, of course, a big advantage, but at the same time, sometimes when a team is not achieving what they want to, it's a breath of fresh air that is needed rather than the same people in different roles. It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out for the Australian squads.

Possible future directors

As riders retire, stepping into the team car is a very popular option post-racing career, and there are a number of riders who look to be prepping to step into a sport director role by completing the UCI DS exams this off-season. This licence is required to be a DS for a professional team.

Whilst the UCI are yet to publish the list of people newly accredited as sports directors, the World Cycling Centre Instagram account did post a whole load of photos from the course and exam, which revealed a number of faces that might be looking at a post-racing career in directing. A total of 81 would-be directors took the course this year.

As we've already mentioned, Ben Swift did the course, and we spotted a few other names too. Tim Declercq, Niki Terpstra, Adrien Petit and Nico Roche all took the exam, as did the new Modern Adventure Pro Cycling DSs, Alex Howes, Ty Magner and Joey Rosskopf. We know where those three are going, but the other retired pros haven't publicly announced their plans for 2026, so we'll keep an eye on where they might end up.

On the women's side, Amanda Spratt is still signed as a rider for Lidl-Trek in 2026, but took the course to get her licence this year. Could she be eyeing a hybrid role next year, where she does some trial days in the car, like Anna van der Breggen did before her break from racing? Sanne Cant also did the course, after joining SD Worx-Protime as a cyclocross coach, so we could see her in their car on the road, too.