Jake Latham
As the World Tour races all draw to a close, riders and teams begin the scramble to resign and reshuffle the field for the 2016 season. Once all the ProTour teams are decided the riders can continue training and preparing for the new season.
This season we saw the Australian team Orica Greenedge team pick up some new talent and push some talented young riders to the front of the bunch to get some great results, but the next round of team transfers has some big hitters swapping their teams up for new offers, and some new Australian up-and-comers
Notably for Australian rider Richie Porte, a move from Team Sky to BMC Racing Team will see him on a new bike for the next ProTour season.
Here is a look at how the teams are playing out, broken down into a few categories for signed, extension, negotiation and unconfirmed, with dates added for the last update received about that athlete and teams they were on in the previous 2015 season.
Update 27 Oct:
Matthew Hayman has resigned his contract with Orica Greenedge for 2 more years. The strong domestique will help the team to hopefully become GC contenders for The Tour de France.
Update 14 Oct:
Goss is now with One Pro Cycling team, Cameron Meyer moves to Team Dimension Data from Orica GreenEdge and Nathan Earle will be joining the Drapac Professional Cycling team for 2016.
Update 11 Oct:
Rumour has it that Matthew Goss will sign with One Pro Cycling team after the Abu Dhabi Tour has concluded. We are still waiting for confirmation but expect to see Goss join his fellow compatriot Steele Von Hoff on the team.
Brendan Canty moves from Team Budget Forklifts to the ProContinental team Drapac Professional Cycling.
Hilton Clarke is retiring at the end of the year, as is Cadel Evans from the WorldTour racing events.
Update 30 Sep:
MTN – Qhubeka has confirmed three new riders and a new sponsor.
Mark Cavendish (GBR), Bernard Eisel (AUT) and Mark Renshaw from Australia have made the move from Etixx – Quick-step to formely MTN – Qhubeka now Team Dimension Data due to new sponsors Dimension Data being the major sponsor for the African team. Also rumored that sporting directors Rolf Aldag and Brian Holm, who worked with Cavendish, Eisel and Renshaw during their successful spell at HTC may make the move with the riders.
SIGNED:
| Name: | 2015 | 2016 | Updated: |
| Cameron Meyer | Orica GreenEdge | Team Dimension Data | 13 Oct |
| Matthew Goss | MTN – Qhubeka | One Pro Cycling | 13 Oct |
| Nathan Earle | Team Sky | Drapac Professional Cycling | 11 Oct |
| Brendan Canty | Team Budget Forklifts | Drapac Professional Cycling | 11 Oct |
| Steele Von Hoff | NFTO | One Pro Cycling | 2 Oct |
| Nathan Haas | Team Cannondale-Garmin | Team Dimension Data | 2 Oct |
| Mark Renshaw | Etixx – Quick-Step | Team Dimension Data | 30 Sep |
| Campbell Flakemore | BMC Racing Team | BMC Racing Team | 30 Sep |
| Jack Bobridge | Team Budget Forklifts | Trek Factory Racing | 15 Sep |
| Simon Clarke | Orica GreenEdge | Team Cannondale – Garmin | 24 Aug |
| Alexander Edmondson | – | Orica Greenedge | 2 Aug |
| Jack Haig | Jayco – AIS | Orica Greenedge | 2 Aug |
| Leigh Howard | Orica GreenEdge | IAM Cycling | 27 Aug |
| Jason Lowndes | Garneau – Quebecor | Drapac Professional Cycling | 15 Sep |
| Richie Porte | Team Sky | BMC Racing Team | 1 Aug |
| Robert Power | – | Orica Greenedge | 1 Aug |
EXTENSION:
| Name: | 2015 | 2016 | Updated: |
| Matthew Hayman | Orica Greenedge | Orica Greenedge | 27 Oct |
| James Glasspool | Team Novo Nordisk | Team Novo Nordisk | 14 Oct |
| Jonathan Clarke | UnitedHealthCare | UnitedHealthCare | 14 Oct |
| Karl Menzies | UnitedHealthCare | UnitedHealthCare | 14 Oct |
| Graeme Brown | Drapac Professional Cycling | Drapac Professional Cycling | 13 Oct |
| William Clarke | Drapac Professional Cycling | Drapac Professional Cycling | 13 Oct |
| Jordan Kerby | Drapac Professional Cycling | Drapac Professional Cycling | 13 Oct |
| Lachlan Norris | Drapac Professional Cycling | Drapac Professional Cycling | 13 Oct |
| Adam Phelan | Drapac Professional Cycling | Drapac Professional Cycling | 13 Oct |
| Timothy Roe | Drapac Professional Cycling | Drapac Professional Cycling | 13 Oct |
| Bernard Sulzberger | Drapac Professional Cycling | Drapac Professional Cycling | 13 Oct |
| Brenton Jones | Drapac Professional Cycling | Drapac Professional Cycling | 11 Oct |
| Samuel Spokes | Drapac Professional Cycling | Drapac Professional Cycling | 11 Oct |
| Michael Rogers | Tinkoff – Saxo | Tinkoff – Saxo | 30 Sep |
| Rohan Dennis | BMC Racing Team | BMC Racing Team | 30 Sep |
| Michael Matthews | Orica Greenedge | Orica Greenedge | 30 Sep |
| Simon Gerrans | Orica Greenedge | Orica Greenedge | 30 Sep |
| Luke Durbridge | Orica Greenedge | Orica Greenedge | 30 Sep |
| Caleb Ewan | Orica Greenedge | Orica Greenedge | 30 Sep |
| David Tanner | IAM Cycling | IAM Cycling | 30 Sep |
| Heinrich Haussler | IAM Cycling | IAM Cycling | 30 Sep |
| Rory Sutherland | Movistar | Movistar | 30 Sep |
| Jai Crawford | Kinan Cycling Team | Kinan Cycling Team | 2 Sep |
| Adam Hansen | Lotto-Soudal | Lotto-Soudal | 18 Sep |
| Michael Hepburn | Orica Greenedge | Orica Greenedge | 18 Sep |
| Damien Howson | Orica Greenedge | Orica Greenedge | 2 Sep |
| Jay McCarthy | Tinkoff – Saxo | Tinkoff – Saxo | 13 Aug |
| Travis Meyer | Drapac Professional Cycling | Drapac Professional Cycling | 15 Sep |
UNCONFIRMED:
| Name: | 2015 | 2016 | Updated: |
| Daniel McConnell | Trek Factory Racing | ? | 30 Sep |
| Mitchell Docker | Orica Greenedge | ? | 30 Sep |
| Hilton Clark | Unitedhealthcare Pro Cycling | Retiring, effective 31/12 | 11 Oct |
| Christopher Sutton | Team Sky | ? | 28 Sep |
| Calvin Watson | Trek Factory Racing | ? | 23 Sep |
| Cameron Wurf | – | Team Cannondale – Garmin | 10 Sep |
Stay tuned for more updates on all the Australian riders for the forthcoming season.
