Ineos Grenadiers reportedly paid the highest transfer fee in history for a rider who has yet to win a WorldTour-level stage race. This will all work out just fine, right?
Cor Vos, Kristof Ramon
The recent trend of riders switching teams mid-contract only accelerated in 2025, with major names like Remco Evenepoel, Juan Ayuso, Derek Gee-West and Oscar Onley all transferring to new teams before their deals were up, plus Cian Uijtedebroeks achieving the – perhaps dubious – feat of becoming the first rider to break a contract early on two occasions.
Why are more riders breaking contracts?
It’s not your imagination, and what’s driving the recent trend may lead to a formal transfer market for pro cycling.
Reporting in Velo, longtime pro cycling reporter Andrew Hood cited sources claiming that Onley’s buyout set a record as the most expensive in the sport’s history. Hood wrote that Ineos Grenadiers paid Onley’s former Picnic-PostNL team more than double the US$2 million fee that Evenepoel’s recent transfer from Soudal-Quick Step to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe cost.
That difference is mitigated significantly by the fact that Evenepoel had only one year remaining on his Soudal contract, while Onley was reportedly under contract with Picnic through 2027. Onley, 23, is also two years younger than Evenepoel and will be paid quite a bit less (low seven figures compared to Evenepoel’s supposed $6-$7 million per year, according to Velo). But adding together the reported buyout fees and salary range, Onley’s two-year deal with Ineos will still cost the team between $3-$4 million per year, which is a staggering amount to pay for a rider with such a thin resumé. (Evenepoel, by contrast, is a three-time world time trial champion, double Olympic champion and Grand Tour and Monument winner and is still just 25.)
All of that raises a big question: Is the mid-contract transfer trend getting out of hand? I sat down with Dane Cash to discuss.
Question 1: Did Ineos overpay for Onley?
Dane Cash: On the one hand, I think they very obviously overpaid in that Onley is not Evenepoel, or anywhere near him at this point really – but I think any analysis of the Ineos approach here deserves some nuance and I’m willing to withhold judgment on what seems like a wild overreach for a handful of reasons.
First and foremost, the team’s financial backer Jim Ratcliffe is astronomically wealthy, with an estimated net worth of £17 billion. Any “budget” the team has is sort of up to how willing he is to part with his riches. Unlike most teams, the big boss could theoretically just dig through his sofa to come up with a few million more if he so desires. That changes the circumstances around any financial math. If team brass decided to make this move without any changes to their expected budget, then yes, it’s a pretty crazy play. But if Ratcliffe was keen to make the move and willing to throw some cash around? Why not? In cycling terms he has practically limitless wealth.
Under Jim Ratcliffe’s ownership, Ineos hasn’t had nearly the success it did as Team Sky, and now it’s up to Dave Brailsford to try to take it back to the top of the sport.
You could argue that he could have tried harder to use that money on Evenepoel or maybe Juan Ayuso, but for whatever reason those moves didn’t happen, so what’s a few extra million to bring Onley aboard? No, he isn’t a Tour de France favorite and even a podium will be a challenge given how good the world’s three best GC riders are right now, but he at least gives Ineos a rider who could be in the mix in the unlikely but still possible event of a Tadej Pogačar mishap.
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