Summer racing season is well underway and the Tour de France is just around the corner, with another important, non-racing date following shortly afterwards – the opening of cycling's transfer market on August 1.
The Tuesday after the Tour, smack-bang in the middle of the Tour de France Femmes, will bring a flurry of rider contract announcements for 2026 as men's and women's teams unveil the deals they've made for the new season.
But, with a few months still to run in the men's WorldTour survival battle, there could well be several immediate transfer deals done as the squads fighting relegation covet riders who can deliver those precious UCI points.
That's the opinion of cycling super-agent Alex Carera, in any case. The Italian runs the leading A&J All Sports agency with his brother Johnny, and the pair represent dozens of the world's top riders, including Tadej Pogačar, Biniam Girmay, Elisa Balsamo, Isaac del Toro, and Jasper Philipsen.
Few are better placed to make judgements about the rider market, and Carera revealed exactly what type of rider could be worth the most this August.
"The one-day racer. Those races are worth a lot of points," Carera told Bici.Pro.
"Even though at the end of the year a rider may not have won much, he will have racked up quite a few points. This rider could hover between 30th and 60th in the UCI rankings."
Carera picked out a handful of riders who might be more valuable than you think, names beyond the Monument-racing superstars that spring to mind.
"Naming names is always delicate, but I would say one: Harold Martín Lopez (XDS-Astana). He finished four stage races in a row in the top three. He's not well-known, but he scored a lot of points. Or Guillermo Thomas Silva (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), also little-known but very productive in terms of points."
The pair currently lie 73rd and 75th in the 2025 UCI rankings, having scored 644 and 610 points so far this season, while several other riders ranked around the middle of the UCI top 100 also fit the archetype.
Included in that list are Emilien Jeannière (TotalEnergies) with 815 points this season and Louis Barré (Intermarché-Wanty) with 573, though both are contracted through 2026.
Several of these riders have contracts which expire at the end of 2025, including Hugo Hofstetter (Israel-Premier Tech) with 705, Bastien Tronchon (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) with 653, and Alexis Renard, who has contributed 585 points to Cofidis' struggle to stay in the top 18 teams.
Other riders with over 400 points on the board with no confirmed contract beyond the current season include Clément Berthet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Erlend Blikra (Uno-X Mobility), and Jenthe Biermans (Arkéa-B&B Hotels).
According to Carera, this type of rider, who may not win many races but consistently picks up UCI points, holds solid value in the current market.
"For the big guys, victories and important podiums count. They are part of teams that are already safe in the WorldTour, so points are not decisive," he said.
"But for the other riders, who are good without being winners, points are crucial. Teams like Cofidis, Picnic-PostNL, Intermarché-Wanty, Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Jayco-AlUla also evaluate a rider on the basis of the points he can bring, given the fight to stay in the WorldTour."
As of Tuesday, the 16th-19th placed teams in the three-year UCI rankings – Intermarché-Wanty, XDS-Astana, Picnic-PostNL, and Cofidis – are covered by 1,176 points. Carera expects these relegation-threatened teams to be active in the market for riders from the moment the transfer market officially opens.
"From August 1, the teams that risk losing their WorldTour licence will move," he said. "Considering that Romain Bardet has left Picnic-PostNL, they will have space. The same goes for Intermarché-Wanty and Cofidis. They are the three teams that could act to save what can be saved.
"They want to take a rider who from August 1 to October 31 can 'guarantee' them 300-400 points. Points that, at the end of the year, can make the difference between having or losing the WorldTour licence."
