We know press officers need something to do over the offseason, but getting scooped by your own riders is embarrassing. Plus: where to spot up-and-coming talent.
Cor Vos
Good day, readers, and thank you for opening this week’s Wheel Talk Newsletter. Offseason is actually almost over, at least for the riders. Most are back on their bikes this week, gearing up for December team camps and racing in January. The time really flies, and in a blink we’ll be back to watching road cycling on the big screen.
The new season is going to be a big one. Even though there were less big name transfers this season, new rules put in place by the UCI will transform the women’s scene in 2026. We’ve been really lucky to be fans of the sport the last couple of years, it will be interesting to see how things continue to grow and when we hit a platue where overlooked aspects of the sport become bigger issues. But more on that later.
First things first: Charlotte Kool accidentally drops Fenix-Deceuninck 2026 roster
Fenix-Deceuninck is one of those teams that is weirdly secretive about contract lengths. They don’t often announce how long a rider has signed for. When I looked at their roster today on FirstCycling, 12 riders have yet to announce contract renewals. They’ve only announced the addition of Xaydee Van Sinaey, who will step up from the development team to the WorldTeam, and Kool before the end of the season, but only Pauliena Rooijakkers has left the team, officially. Renewals so far include Yara Kastelijn, Puck Pieterse, and Carina Schrempf.
Luckily, it’s hard to resist dropping a group pic on the Gram while sipping champagne on top of a mountain in Austria so thanks to Kool, we have a better picture of the team Fenix-Deceuninck will field in 2026.
Big thanks to Seve for screenshotting this breaking news and sending it to the Wheel Talk Discord channel and also to Peter van der Veen for successfully identifying all the riders present. Honestly, if you’re not on the WT Discord, you’re missing out.
Riders present include Van Sinaey, Flora Perkins (renew), Julie De Wilde (renew), Schrempf, Christina Schweinberger (renew), Pieterse, Evy Kuijpers (renew), and Millie Couzens (renew). Also present: Mylène de Zoete, who is a new signing to the team yet to be announced. De Zoete rode for Ceratizit from 2023 to 2025 and was part of the team’s dominating force at the Tour of Chongming Island last season where she won two stages and finished second overall behind her then-teammate Marta Lach.
As we’re into the cyclocross season we can assume that the photo Kool posted doesn’t include some of the cyclocross riders (Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, Annemarie Worst, Sara Casasola, Inge van der Heijden, Aniek van Alphen, and Marthe Truyen). Some were racing at the European Championships over the weekend – or winning it, in the case of Van der Heijden – and some have yet to start their cross campaigns.
Transfers update
Not a transfer, but something I was excited to see, was Liv AlUla Jayco’s announcement that Ruby Roseman-Gannon has extended her contract with the Australian team through 2027. She’s one of the last remaining core members of the squad, and while a new uniform riding for a different team might be a nice shift for Roseman-Gannon at some point, it would be really weird to see her riding for someone else.
Jayco saved?
The men’s and women’s teams riders have been told in a team-wide Zoom meeting that the UCI bank guarantee deadline will be met, ensuring it will race on the WorldTour in 2026.
The news that Roseman-Gannon will continue seems to signal that the Australian team will definitely be okay, at least next season. She has one of the longer extention contracts though, most returning riders are only signed to the end of 2026. Only six riders have 2027 deals, and most are the neo-pros Erin Boothman, Mackenzie Coupland, Nadia Gontova, Matilde Vittilo, and Noä Jansen.
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