From Ganna to Carapaz: 10 transfers that could change the balance of power in 2027

The 2027 transfer window has seen several major moves, with riders leaving contracts early and teams reshaping their squads for next season. Ben O'Connor's return to Decathlon CMA CGM, where he will be joined by Pavel Sivakov, is among those worth watching, as are Tao Geoghegan Hart's move to EF Education-EasyPost and Arnaud De Lie's switch to Tudor.

All four came close to making this list, but these ten transfers could have an even bigger impact in 2027.

Richard Carapaz had a year left on his contract and was coming off one of the best seasons of his career, with a second Tour de France mountains classification, two stage wins, eighth overall in Paris and fourth at the Vuelta a España. EF Education-EasyPost let him go anyway.

Team manager Jonathan Vaughters has since explained that the team's budget fell by around 15 percent for 2027, following the departure of Oatly as a sponsor of the women's team and rising operating costs. Releasing one of their highest earners was the simplest way to cut spending.

For NSN Cycling, it was an opportunity to sign a proven Grand Tour contender. Carapaz has agreed a three-year deal and arrives alongside Santiago Buitrago, the Vuelta's mountains classification winner, Lennert Van Eetvelt and Kasper Asgreen. He also scored more than twice as many UCI points in 2026 as NSN's best-placed rider, Biniam Girmay.

“This reminds me a lot of when I signed my first professional contract, when I was incredibly excited about being in the WorldTour,” Carapaz said.

At 33, the Ecuadorian is still performing at the highest level. His arrival gives NSN something they have never had before: a proven Grand Tour leader capable of challenging for the podium. EF, meanwhile, have lost their biggest name because they could no longer afford to keep him.

Filippo Ganna had been at Ineos and its predecessors since 2019 and still had a year left on his contract. Asked about a possible move to Lidl-Trek during the Italian autumn, he said he was staying at Netcompany-Ineos “for now”. Not long afterwards, the transfer was confirmed, with a deal running through 2029.

The Italian leaves after another strong season, winning Dwars door Vlaanderen, a Giro d'Italia time trial stage and the national time trial title. He also took silver behind Remco Evenepoel at the World Championships and gold with Italy in the mixed relay.

At Lidl-Trek, Ganna joins an already formidable Classics squad built around Mads Pedersen and Jonathan Milan. His time trial ability and power on the flat will also make him a valuable asset for Juan Ayuso, Felix Gall and Mattias Skjelmose in the Grand Tours.

“I have big goals I hope to achieve with Lidl-Trek, particularly in the Classics,” Ganna said. “Of course, the Grand Tours remain an important objective, and I look forward to supporting the team whilst taking my own chances.”

But the number of leaders being assembled at Lidl-Trek has raised questions. Former Quick-Step boss Patrick Lefevere described the team's recruitment as “stacking names without real sporting logic”, arguing that winning also requires enough riders willing to work for others.

Ganna's arrival adds another major name to a squad already crowded with talent, while departures including Giulio Ciccone and Tao Geoghegan Hart have helped make room. How Lidl-Trek balance those ambitions will be one of the questions heading into 2027.

Paula Blasi was riding for UAE's development team as recently as early 2025. By the end of 2026, she had won a Grand Tour and established herself as one of the biggest young talents in women's cycling. Yet the 23-year-old has decided to continue her career elsewhere.

Her breakthrough season included a solo victory at the Amstel Gold Race, third at La Flèche Wallonne and a remarkable triumph at La Vuelta Femenina on her Grand Tour debut. On the Angliru, she overturned an 18-second deficit to Anna van der Breggen to become the race's first Spanish winner.

Stage race victories at the Tour Féminin des Pyrénées and Volta a Catalunya followed, along with fifth overall at the Tour de France Femmes.

But her departure from UAE proved far from straightforward. Blasi still had a contract until the end of 2027, and despite a reported buyout clause, negotiations dragged on for months before her move received UCI approval. She later criticised the lack of clarity and trust from the team's management, saying that even after deciding to leave, UAE had not made the process easy.

“I needed to take a different step and look for a team that believed in me, supported my goals and was as ambitious as I am,” Blasi said.

She has signed a three-year deal with Movistar, where she will share leadership with Marlen Reusser. The Spanish team gain a Grand Tour winner at just 23, while UAE lose one of the brightest talents to come through their development programme.

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney has finished on the final podium of every Tour de France Femmes since the race began in 2022, winning the 2024 edition by just four seconds. After nine seasons at Canyon//SRAM, she is joining Lidl-Trek in search of more victories.

Her 2026 Tour showed how close she remains to the very top. Niewiadoma-Phinney won stage seven on Mont Ventoux, her first stage victory at the race, and took the yellow jersey. She went into the final day in Nice eight seconds behind Demi Vollering, but an attack on the Col d'Èze was not enough to overturn the deficit.

There were more near misses elsewhere. She finished second to Paula Blasi at the Amstel Gold Race and second to Vollering at the World Championships in Montréal.

Despite winning the Tour, La Flèche Wallonne and the Amstel Gold Race during her career, Niewiadoma-Phinney has often come painfully close to adding more major titles.

“I'm looking forward to learning from the team, what we can improve, how we can get faster and how we can raise our hands more often when crossing the finish line,” she said.

For Lidl-Trek, the signing ends a two-year search for an established stage race leader following Elisa Longo Borghini's departure at the end of 2024. Niamh Fisher-Black and Isabella Holmgren will now have a former Tour winner alongside them, while Canyon//SRAM face the challenge of replacing a rider who has been central to the team since 2018.

That responsibility is likely to fall increasingly on Antonia Niedermaier, who finished fourth at this year's Tour.

Felix Gall finished on the podium at both the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España in 2026, yet his future at Decathlon CMA CGM had become increasingly complicated.

The Austrian finished second at the Giro behind Jonas Vingegaard and third at the Vuelta behind Enric Mas and Primož Roglič, confirming his status as one of the peloton's strongest Grand Tour climbers.

But the emergence of Paul Seixas has changed the picture at Decathlon. The Frenchman finished fourth at the Tour de France at just 19 and went on to win Il Lombardia at 20, establishing himself as the team's leading prospect for the coming years.

Gall, now 28, has moved to Lidl-Trek, where he will have opportunities to lead but faces considerable competition. Juan Ayuso, Mattias Skjelmose and Derek Gee-West are also part of a squad with multiple Grand Tour ambitions.

The arrival of Gregor Mühlberger from Decathlon gives Gall a familiar teammate in the mountains, while his former team have strengthened their own lineup with the return of Ben O'Connor.

For Lidl-Trek, the move adds a rider fresh from two Grand Tour podiums to an already crowded leadership group. Gall has demonstrated that he can compete with the best over three weeks. The question now is where he will sit in the team's hierarchy.

Giulio Ciccone had signed a contract with Lidl-Trek through 2029, but his departure was confirmed on the eve of Il Lombardia, bringing eight seasons with the team to an unexpectedly early end.

The Italian has signed a three-year deal with Pinarello Q36.5, becoming one of the biggest names in the Swiss team's ambitious recruitment drive.

Ciccone leaves Lidl-Trek after another strong season. He won the mountains classification at the Giro d'Italia, finished second to Remco Evenepoel at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and came within millimetres of beating the Belgian to the European title in Šenčur.

At Pinarello-Q36.5, he joins a squad led by Tom Pidcock that has also signed Mauro Schmid, Ethan Hayter and Pavel Bittner, as the Swiss team continue to strengthen their roster.

The recruitment is part of Pinarello's push to establish themselves among the leading ProTeams and strengthen their position ahead of the 2029 WorldTour licence cycle.

Ciccone gives them an experienced Grand Tour rider who can target stage wins and mountains classifications while also competing for victories in the hilly Classics.

Mauro Schmid has also joined Pinarello-Q36.5 after the strongest season of his career, giving the Swiss team another rider capable of winning throughout the calendar.

Schmid finished second overall at the Tour Down Under and fourth at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, won the Muscat Classic, a stage of the Tour of Oman and the Settimana Coppi e Bartali, and was runner-up at La Flèche Wallonne.

His biggest victory, however, came at the Tour de France. On stage 13 from Dole to Belfort, the longest stage of the race at 205.8 kilometres, Schmid attacked from the breakaway on the descent of the Ballon d'Alsace with 16 kilometres remaining.

Only Harold Tejada could follow. Despite cramping in the closing kilometres, Schmid managed to come around the Colombian in the final 200 metres to win by a photo finish.

It was a reversal of his narrow defeat to Jonas Abrahamsen in Toulouse a year earlier.

By midsummer, Schmid had climbed to seventh in the UCI ranking, illustrating the consistency that makes him such a valuable signing.

Markel Beloki, the son of three-time Tour de France podium finisher Joseba Beloki, has joined Netcompany-Ineos after a breakthrough season with EF Education-EasyPost.

The 21-year-old made his Giro d'Italia debut in May, having already finished 13th at the Itzulia Basque Country. His breakthrough came in July at the Tour de l'Ain, where he attacked inside the final ten kilometres of stage two, from Saint-Vulbas to Lagnieu, to claim his first professional victory.

He then survived a demanding final stage through the Jura to seal the overall title, before finishing eighth at the Vuelta a Burgos the following week.

Beloki's contract with EF expired at the end of the season, and the American team's financial difficulties made retaining their emerging talent increasingly difficult. Ineos moved to secure his signature as part of a wider squad rebuild.

“I've learned so much already in my first few seasons as a professional, and those experiences have made me even more ambitious about what I want to achieve,” Beloki said.

At the British team, he joins a group that already includes Oscar Onley, sixth at this year's Vuelta, Thymen Arensman, fourth at the Giro, and Egan Bernal. Junior double world champion Benjamín Noval is also arriving for 2027.

Beloki is not yet at the level of those established Grand Tour contenders, but his progression makes him an important signing for the future. With Ineos losing a significant part of their roster, the Spaniard is among the riders they hope can develop into leaders over the next few seasons.

Uno-X Mobility have built their men's team almost exclusively around Norwegian and Danish riders, but their latest signing is an American.

Magnus Sheffield, however, has strong Norwegian connections. His mother is from Gjøvik, he holds a Norwegian passport and grew up speaking the language at home.

“We always spoke Norwegian at home. It was almost our secret family language growing up in the US,” Sheffield said after signing a four-year contract through 2030.

The move has been years in the making. Sheffield first spoke to Uno-X as a junior in 2019, the same year he won bronze at the World Championships in Harrogate.

Now 24, he arrives after several seasons with the British team, where he won Brabantse Pijl in 2022 and a stage of Paris-Nice in 2025. He has established himself as a strong time triallist and Classics rider, although his 2026 season brought fewer standout results.

At Netcompany-Ineos, Sheffield was often asked to work for others. Uno-X believe there is more to come if he is given greater opportunities.

“Magnus is a rider with enormous potential, and I don't think we have seen the full extent of it yet,” team manager Thor Hushovd said.

Harold Tejada has joined Netcompany-Ineos after seven seasons at XDS Astana, leaving the Kazakh team following the best year of his career.

The Colombian finished fourth overall at the UAE Tour, won stage six of Paris-Nice and came within a photo finish of a Tour de France stage victory. He later finished tenth overall at the Vuelta a España, underlining his ability to compete over three weeks.

His narrow Tour defeat came against Mauro Schmid in Belfort, where the pair escaped from the breakaway before the Swiss rider edged him on the line.

At 29, Tejada has only two professional victories, but his value extends beyond his own results.

Ineos have several riders capable of challenging for Grand Tour top-five finishes, including Oscar Onley and Thymen Arensman, and Tejada has been recruited to strengthen their support in the high mountains.

“Harold is a strong, solid climber with plenty of experience. He's been consistently up there over the last few years, and he'll be a great support to our GC riders,” said Geraint Thomas, now the team's director of racing, when the signing was announced.

For Ineos, Tejada fills a specific role as they rebuild their Grand Tour squad. Astana, by contrast, lose an experienced climber and one of their most consistent points scorers, a significant blow for a team that has relied on squad depth to protect its WorldTour status.