Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team continue to make massive strides on the 2026 transfer market. The Swiss ProTeam is looking to promote to WorldTour at the end of the 2026-2028 UCI license cycle; and their transfer goals fully reflect that ambition.
The headline signing for the team of Tom Pidcock appears to be Mauro Schmid. The former Swiss champion scored over 2.000 UCI points in the first half of 2026 and is linked with a very lucrative contract.
Furthermore, the team acknowledges its lack in sprinter departement. To replace the struggling Sam Bennett, either Czech sprinter Pavel Bittner (Picnic PostNL) or rising Belgian talent Tom Crabbe are expected to fulfill his spot.
But changes are expected in the climbing department as well. Experienced captain Damien Howson hangs up his bike at the end of this season, and compatriot Sebastian Berwick (winner of the Tour of Turkey) could take his place. Another Caja Rural's climber Jan Castellon has also been mentioned in connection to Pinarello Q36.5.
And according to journalist Daniel Benson, yet another youngster is set to join Pidcock; his former INEOS teammate Andrew August might be the key final piece to Pinarello's future.
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Yet another failed project of INEOS, or..?
This decade has been marked by eternal struggle to live up to the legacy of "The Empire" for Netcompany INEOS. Despite many erratic developments in the team's structure, Egan Bernal's 2021 Giro d'Italia title remains the last Grand Tour victory in their rich palmares.
Over the years, the British team had placed their hopes of becoming the "next Froome" or "next Bernal" on several young talent, but ultimately neither reached the heights of their predecessor.
One of their hopefuls to turn things around has been the young American climber Andrew August. Coming off a great junior career which included title from the most prestigous stage race Ain Bugey Valromey Tour (won ahead of Paul Seixas), INEOS seemed to have found their new prodigy as at the same time, Carlos Rodríguez made strides at the Tour de France with a fifth place overall at the age only 22.
But since then, things have gone sideways. Rodríguez did not continue to flourish and a series of health problems back-tracked his development by several seasons.
Carlos Rodriguez is nowhere near his 2023 form
The expectations are high
As for August, the step into WorldTour may have been a little too early, although his talent continues to show glimpses of the potential he's been accredited by experts back in 2023.
The 2024 season was more about adjusting to the whole new world he's entered, and only 7th overall at Czech Tour (2.1) is a result worth noting.
The following year was already more optimistic; August consistently competed in the finales of races, and even came close to beating Giro d'Italia runner-up Isaac del Toro at the Tour of Austria with two second places.
But the first professional has been evading August until this spring when he discovered the recipe to prevail in two breakaway; at the Volta Comunitat Valenciana and Itzulia Basque Country. In addition, the 20-year-old finished top-10 overall at the three different races.
Whether he'll have all ins and outs to become a GC leader he was prognosed to, that remains to be seen, but Pinarello Q36.5 might have secured a leader for years to come with this deal.
Meanwhile at Netcompany INEOS, the hopes are already pinpointed on August's successor as Ain Bugey Valromey Tour champion, the Spanish prodigy Benjamín Noval who is expected to take the step up straight to WorldTour in 2027.
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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