Cycling Transfers: What does Jayco AlUla’s safety mean for their transfer activity? 🇦🇺

Hey Subscribers,

There’s a lot to cover in today’s newsletter as we analyse the financial safety at Jayco AlUla and what it means for the capabilities on the transfer market; we look at a possible key staff change at the team; we compare Netcompany Ineos’s draft roster for the Vuelta a Espaňa to what they eventually brought to the race, we take a look at why Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe wisely chose not to splash out on a mid-tier sprinter, and we get lots of no comments on whether Rapha are returning to the WorldTour to provide team kit in 2027.

There’s lots to get through, so let’s get cracking.

Daniel 🫶

Twitter 🟢 — Instagram 🔴 — Bluesky 🔵

Firstly, the prevailing feelings coming out of Jayco AlUla right now are relief and positivity. Until about a week ago, they’d not signed a single WorldTour-level rider for 2027; no staff contracts had been authorised, and the team looked in danger for the second year in a row.

From what I gather, during the Tour de France they hosted a number of guests and potential suitors to secure financial stability, and on more than one occasion I saw their internal sponsorship team showing people around the team bus.

It’s still unclear who the new investor in the team is, but I keep hearing that they have American and Swiss connections and could take a majority stake in the team, with current owner Gerry Ryan still involved. One possible scenario is that he sells the WorldTour licence but remains on board until a possible exit in a year or two, but even the riders and staff don't know the long-term plan, other than that the team is safe and there’s new cash coming in for the next five years.

In the transfer market, we know the team have been circling their provisional targets for months, with scouting and internal discussions, but with financial question marks over their future, they’ve not been able to make any concrete moves. That means they’ve lost out on a few early targets, such as Sebastian Berwick, who is heading to Pinarello Q36.5. They also had a good look at Jack Ward, but the young Australian has committed his long-term future to Lidl-Trek.

I won’t lie, I was worried about Jayco AlUla’s future until a few days ago. If you look at the trajectory - letting big-contract riders leave at the end of 2025, not retaining Ben O’Connor and Mauro Schmid, scouts leaving, and the possible closure of their men’s development team - it looked precarious, as if they were stripping assets with a view to shutting up shop at the end of 2027.

Then the team had the Thursday morning mass phone call that we reported on, and all those concerns dissipated. It’s so important, for many different reasons, that this team continues and the legacy carries on.

The reality, however, is that there’s not much quality left on the transfer market. According to our intel, the men’s team have around 3-5 spots left for next year. We’ve already reported that Jed Smithson, Wil Holmes, Daniel Filipe Vieira Moreira, and Adam Rafferty will be moving up to the WorldTour squad. I reported in July that the team had also picked up 17-year-old Aitor Martínez from Vangi Sama Ricambi Il Pirata for a 2027 WorldTour contract. Oliver Bleddyn, a stagiaire with them right now, is also joining the WorldTour team next season.

I think there’s an understanding within Jayco AlUla that 2027 will be a transitional season, and the new investors are fully aware of this. What’s unclear is whether the new cash will hit the tills now or at the start of next year, which would obviously affect what the team can still do in the market.