2024 Transfer Rumours (and confirmed signings)

Is that not part of the DSM moneyball model though with the expectation that decent riders will be bought out for transfer fees rather than see out their contract?

Daniel Benson reporting that Trinity Racing might fold at the end of the year if they can't find a major sponsor

Yep, as you say, dropped the last man. Impressive at the finish but he had a lot of help there. I hope Ineos didn't take it into account when signing him. For perspective, when Ayuso took it off Vingegaard (whose KOM was also achieved via a Coloquick TTT), it was toward the end of a hard 180km training ride.

Any idea what is happening with Theodor Storm? No races at all in 2024 as far as I can see. Is he injured?

Surely a perfect opportunity for Ineos to step in and support them. They're crying out for a development team.

Isn't one of the McQuaids involved with Trinity in some way?

The agent one, who has a number of Ineos riders on his books? Andrew, I think his name is?

Surely there's a way for the team to carry on, but then maybe this was foretold as Pete Kennaugh seems to have lined a different job up

They could also rebrand them as The Ineos Guardsmen :-)

Just to follow up on this, I believe Ineos, Red Bull, Jayco, EF and Movistar are the only WT teams without development squads.

Movistar seem to barely have any interest in U23s, instead relying on picking up the best from the Spanish pro tour teams with predictable degrees of success.

Jayco and EF both seem to have their fingers on the pulse of the U23 scene and are adept at picking up decent riders overlooked by the other teams. This works for their more modest ambitions but is unlikely to bag them a top, top talent.

Red Bull are starting an U23 squad from next year and going for it in a big way if the rumours are to be believed. They have realised that if you want to attract the cream of the crop, you need to identify the best riders at junior level and get them to sign to your development squad. Yes, there are riders (Evenepoel and possibly Withen Philipsen) who are capable of going straight to the pros from the juniors but they are few and far between. Most need at least a year riding U23 level.

Ineos seem to have realised that they need to find the riders when they are young as evidenced by their spate of recent signings. Their ability to spot talent seems questionable to me but the even bigger problem is that they aren't able to give these youngsters a race schedule that would best suit them.

So, yes, I agree that a tie-up between Ineos and Trinity would seem a perfect solution.

As I understand it, there is "an arrangement" in place between the teams rather that HBJ being a full on dev squad. I'm not sure what that amounts to, possibly placing riders like Alastair Mackellar and Hamish McKenzie in the HBJ squad, maybe? Actually, a similar arrangement between Ineos and Trinity, with Ineos providing enough money to keep Trinity afloat, might be a perfect solution.

In any event, it further emphasises just how out of touch Ineos are having no U23 squad.

Ineos have apparently tried (but failed) to steal l'Avenir runner up Pablo Torres from UAE. That's the sort of signing they should be looking at but, without a U23 team, is going to be extremely difficult to make.

Edit: I've just seen that Paul Seixas isn't confirmed to be staying at Decathlon. If I were Ineos, I'd be all over that situation.

Well that's surprising. Does Ineos not need him at all? Would have seemed like a no brainer.

Might not be a bad thing, you can sometimes be too close going into management at a team where you've just been one of the 'players'.

Could be from both sides, but maybe with everything he can see happening over the last few years, and potentially being more aware of it over the last few months having not ridden, he has decided he needs a total new team to work with.