INEOS Grenadiers on top; Visma and UAE on bottom - How much have teams improved into 2026 season

The 2026 season is starting and the transfer market, whilst never officially closed, has seen the grand majority of the action already take place. We take a look at the teams that have grown the most, and the opposite. Surprisingly, INEOS Grenadiers comes out on top whilst both Team Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates - XRG are close to the bottom.

The list, organized by ProCyclingStats, is a ranking based on the points that all riders have scored this year. The math is then made taking into consideration the points that each team has won and lost through the riders its lost and signed. Whilst it is always to be taken with a grain of salt, it is an interesting statistic that puts on display the teams that have a stronger roster now than they had in 2025.

On top is INEOS Grenadiers, by a large margin actually. It didn't come in cheap, the British team reportedly paid millions to sign Oscar Onley, but they now have the Scottish climber in their lineup for three years. In addition, the team has signed Kévin Vauquelin, Dorian Godon and Sam Welsford amongst others whilst not losing any of its leaders - Geraint Thomas and Caleb Ewan are now out of the team, but neither brought the team meaningful results in 2025.

The other two teams that have a large budget but aren't at the level of UAE and Visma come next, with a large margin over the others. This doesn't come as a surprise, the investment of Red Bull and Lidl respectively has led to massive signings that have improved the teams' levels.

Red Bull has signed Remco Evenepoel, which is a surplus that could never be turned into a negative. The Belgian comes into a team that is already strong, however he can significantly increase the team's ability to win some of the main events in the calendar. He was the only major signing, but not the only talented rider that is joining the team this year. Out are the likes of Roger Adrià, Matteo Sobrero and Sam Welsford - whilst of course, never ignoring Oier Lazkano who was suspended and subsequently fired from the team.

Lidl-Trek is third, losing the likes of Jasper Stuyven and Daan Hoole, who are meaningful, but gaining two Grand Tour big hitters in Juan Ayuso and Derek Gee. The now-German team has significantly increased its abilities to fight for the stage-races and Grand Tours with its two new leaders whilst under-23 World Champion Jakob Söderqvist will provide a big boost in the classics and time trials alike.

At the very bottom is actually Team Picnic PostNL, by a large margin, having signed eight riders but no big hitter; whilst losing Oscar Onley, Tobias Lund Andresen, Kevin Vermaerke and also having seen the retirement of Romain Bardet. The team will without a doubt struggle to perform this year at the top level, after 2025 in itself was already extremely difficult.

UAE Team Emirates - XRG was the second worst off team, and the explanation is rather obvious. Juan Ayuso left the team, having performed strongly this year despite his Giro d'Italia withdrawal. Both Alessandro Covi and Rafal Majka also left the team, whilst the signings of Benoît Cosnefroy, Kevin Vermaerke and Adrià Pericas fill in the gaps.

Team Visma | Lease a Bike are also in a very complicated position. Whilst it doesn't enter the tally, the team has seen both Fem van Empel (undefined break from racing) and Simon Yates leave the team on their own terms over a mere three weeks. But the team has lost serious firepower in the likes of Olav Kooij, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Tiesj Benoot and Dylan van Baarle, losing quality riders on all terrains. Meanwhile it has quality signings, riders such as Davide Piganzoli and Bruno Armirail standing out the most, but they are not guarrantees of performance into 2026.