The most important team switches and changes for 2021
For the coming 2021 season there will be a few team changes, many new team names and a fresh team in the WorldTour.
In the last few days the unexpected team change of the young Swiss Marc Hirschi caused a sensation. The former U-23 world champion and Tour de France stage winner is moving to the UAE-Emirates team. There he becomes a team mate of the young Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar and the three-time Tour de Suisse winner Rui Costa.
The Tour de Suisse winner Richie Porte (2018) switches to INEOS Grenadiers for the new season. It will feel like a return for the Australian as he wore the Team SKY jersey from 2012-2015.
At INEOS he will meet other newbes such as Adam Yates and Dauphiné winner Daniel Felipe Martinez.
Another previous Tour de Suisse winner is changing teams: Miguel Angel Lopez (2016) is a new rider for the Spanish team Movistar.
Michi Schär follows Olympic winner Greg van Avermaet to the French team AG2R Citroën. After Romain Bardet’s departure, the team will focus more on the classics.
The CCC team – which emerged from the BMC team – fell victim to the corona crisis. The Belgian Continental team Circus Wanty Gobert takes over the WorldTour license and will in future compete in the top international league under the name Intermarché Wanty Gobert.
Numerous Swiss professionals change their team for the new season:
– Kilian Frankiny rides new for Qhuebeka-Assos
– Silvan Dillier becomes teammate of world champion Matthieu van der Poel at Alpecin-Fenix
– Gino Mäder now wears the orange of Team Bahrain – Victorious
– Tom Bohli has signed with Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
– Matteo Badilatti meets some familiar faces at Groupama-FDJ
– Mauro Schmid (Quebeka-Assos) is a newcomer to the WorldTour.
Furthermore, in the women’s category both Swiss champions change their team: Elise Chabbey (road) moves to Canyon SRAM and Marlen Reusser (time trial) to Alé BTC Ljubljana.
More team changes for the 2021 season:
– Romain Bardet to DMS (ex Sunweb)
– Michael Matthews to BikeExchange (ex Scott)
– Chris Froome to Israel Cycling (ex INEOS)
– Fabio Aru to Quebeca-Assos (ex UAE-Emirates)
– Wilco Kelderman to BORA-hansgrohe (ex Sunweb)
– Michael Woods on Israel Start-up Nation (ex EF Education First)
Several teams are also changing names in the new season. So Mitchelton-Scott becomes Team BikeExchange, Team Sunweb becomes Team DSM and NTT Pro Cycling becomes Team Qhubeka ASSOS. In addition, some teams have new second names;
AG2R – Citroën, Astana – Premier Tech, Bahrain – Victorious, EF Education – Nippo.
We are looking forward to another great edition of the tour with a promising route.
We wish you all the best & good health for 2021.
