The 2026-27 transfer market has opened with more meh<\/em> than mega-deals.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no never-ending Remco Evenepoel soap opera. No last-minute Juan Ayuso contract drama playing out in front of the team bus. And no franchise reboot like Netcompany-Ineos buying out Oscar Onley.<\/p>\n Instead, we have Valentin Madouas signing for Cofidis.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s holding up \u201csilly season\u201d? One source told Velo<\/em> that part of the answer is Paul Seixas.<\/p>\n The 19-year-old French sensation has become the transfer market\u2019s hinge point.<\/p>\n Only the peloton\u2019s uber-rich superteams have the cash to play the Seixas sweepstakes, but they\u2019re reluctant to spend it elsewhere until they know what cycling\u2019s hottest young prospect is doing. Until Seixas decides his future, millions of euros are in a holding pattern.<\/p>\n Another reason things are quieter out of the official August 1 window is the sheer upheaval of last year\u2019s market. There were so many big-dollar buyouts and transfers that even reached into coaches, sport directors and trainers that\u00a0many teams are focusing more on consolidation than blockbuster moves.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean that teams aren\u2019t chasing deals. Reports Tuesday from Het Laatste Nieuws<\/em> that linked Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d to possibly join Lotto for 2027 is proof things are moving.<\/p>\n Nearly 200 riders across the men\u2019s and women\u2019s WorldTours are still set to come off contract, with young talents like Paula Blasi steadily cranking up the volume.<\/p>\n There may not be another Remco-style soap opera this summer, unless Seixas fever explodes into the biggest deal the sport has ever seen.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s where things stand.<\/p>\n There simply isn\u2019t much A-list talent available, and the teams that have it aren\u2019t letting go easily.<\/p>\n After last year\u2019s record-breaking transfer frenzy, the game has shifted gears from buying stars to keeping them.<\/p>\n UAE Emirates-XRG nailed down the biggest deal of the season last week by extending Isaac del Toro through 2031 after the Mexican\u2019s breakout Tour de France. That quickly put an end to any speculation that he was heading out the UAE door.<\/p>\n So what does mean in the Seixas sweepstakes? UAE already has Peak Poga\u010dar and Del Toro waiting in the wings. Adding Seixas to the mix would be too much for some fans, but never count out the peloton\u2019s richest team of any bidding war.<\/p>\n The Emirati squad also penned Brandon McNulty through 2030 and key lieutenants Jhonatan Narv\u00e1ez and Nils Politt through 2029. The Pog Train is solid for as long as the Slovenian wants to keep rolling.<\/p>\n After a wild transfer campaign last year capped by the Evenepoel deal, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe fought off rival offers to keep Jai Hindley through 2028. The Aussie and former Giro-winner proved invaluable as a solid lieutenant to Evenepoel during the Tour, and gives the team a plan B at other races.<\/p>\n Movistar locked down Spanish prodigy Iv\u00e1n Romeo through 2030, and Lotto Intermarch\u00e9 extended with budding ace Jarno Widar and Lars Craps. Other key extensions include budding French star Romain Gr\u00e9goire with Groupama-FDJ through 2028 and Diego Ulissi with one more season with XDS Astana.<\/p>\n FDJ United-SUEZ has moved early to secure its future, extending with Demi Vollering, C\u00e9lia G\u00e9ry, L\u00e9a Curinier, and Elise Chabbey all through 2028.<\/p>\n The trend seems to be why go shopping when you\u2019ve already got the crown jewels inside the team bus?<\/p>\n The transfer window officially opened August 1, but that\u2019s mostly a formality these days.<\/p>\n The days of managers and agents sneaking off to Tour de France hotel bars on rest days to hammer out deals are long gone.<\/p>\n Today, the rumor mill never sleeps and negotiations run 365 days a year over endless WhatsApp chats.<\/p>\n And plenty of the deals dropping now were actually done weeks or months ago. Teams just sit on the news until they think it\u2019ll make the biggest splash.<\/p>\n One team that isn\u2019t waiting is Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling.<\/p>\n Tom Pidcock\u2019s squad has already landed Tour stage winner Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) and Czech sprinter Pavel Bittner (Picnic-PostNL). The ProTeam squad is making a serious push for the WorldTour when the next licensing cycle ends in 2028, and those two should bring both points and wins.<\/p>\n Alpecin-Premier Tech bolstered its classics arsenal with Iv\u00e1n Garc\u00eda Cortina, Casper van Uden, and Madis Mihkels. The team\u2019s two superstars in Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen are both already signed through 2028. Kaden Groves is said to be leaving.<\/p>\n Another big move is Kate Courtney transitioning from mountain biking to road with her deal with FDJ United-Suez, where she will be teammates with Tour de France Femmes champ Vollering. She is expected to make her debut in team colors next month at the Tour of Britain.<\/p>\n Other notable confirmed early moves: Santiago Buitrago<\/strong> \u2192 NSN, Valentin Madouas<\/strong> \u2192 Cofidis, Lorenzo Milesi<\/strong> \u2192 Soudal Quick-Step, Mikel Landa<\/strong> \u2192 Euskaltel-Euskadi.<\/p>\n The biggest moves are TBD.<\/p>\n In the women\u2019s peloton, Blasi confirmed her status as the hottest prospect after her breakthrough Tour de France Femmes, with fifth overall after sacrificing her own chances to support Elisa Longo Borghini in her podium quest.<\/p>\n UAE has already confirmed that the Spaniard will leave at the end of the season, with Movistar among the teams linked to the 23-year-old. Blasi is expected to command one of the richest contracts in the women\u2019s peloton, with speculation already pushing the figure toward seven figures.<\/p>\n Another big name on the move is Kasia Niewiadoma, who is expected to leave Canyon-SRAM after extending her streak of Tour de France Femmes podium finishes. Dan Benson has linked her to Lidl-Trek, but no official news yet.<\/p>\n On the men\u2019s side,\u00a0Felix Gall, Ben O\u2019Connor, Arnaud De Lie, and Rogli\u010d are among the names generating the most noise, and plenty more deals are coming in the peloton\u2019s annual game of musical chairs.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s Seixas.<\/p>\n The teenager has fueled cycling\u2019s biggest transfer obsession since February, and two weeks after his fourth-place Tour debut, none of the big-money superteams have given up.<\/p>\n Wielerflits<\/em> reported that Seixas signed a Letter of Intent last year with UAE, but sources told Velo<\/em> no decisions would be made until after the Tour. Well, it\u2019s been two weeks, and everything remains tightly under wraps.<\/p>\n Every big team with money has put out feelers. Visma-Lease a Bike confirmed during the Tour it\u2019s interested. And with Jonas Vingegaard hitting his peak, the Dutch team is thinking about who carries its grand tour ambitions into the next decade.<\/p>\n Decathlon brass said they\u2019re working on a deal to keep him on the team, and he still has a contract through 2027. In June, super agent Alex Carera told Velo<\/em> a reported offer from Q36.5 for Seixas for $13 million per season was way off the mark.<\/p>\n Still, this level of speculation is unheard of for such a young rider, who turns 20 next month.<\/p>\n If Seixas moves, this summer\u2019s meh<\/em> could end with the biggest transfer bombshell the sport has ever seen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/news\/paul-seixas-cycling-transfer-market-2026-2027\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_0020-2.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated August 12, 2026 05:17AM The 2026-27 transfer market has opened with more meh than mega-deals. There\u2019s no never-ending Remco Evenepoel soap opera. No last-minute Juan Ayuso contract drama playing out in front of the team bus. And no franchise reboot like Netcompany-Ineos buying out Oscar Onley. Instead, we have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2089463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2089463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2089463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2089463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2089463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2089463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Locking down talent<\/h2>\n
![\"Del](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2284201611-720x488.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
The market\u2019s early movers<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kate-Courtney-2-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
The names everyone is watching<\/h2>\n
![\"Paula](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2288027565-720x554.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
The Seixas sweepstakes<\/h2>\n
![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285000568-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")