@whitejersey: We'll be sure to look after him!

@Abhi: Thanks mate! I'm hoping he'll do a bit better closer to home.

@redordead: We're positive he can turn things around this season! I'm glad the regional additions are appreciated

Coming with a wage of 250,000 does mean we'll have some expectation of performance from the experienced Ecuadorian. Although he'll admit he's a little past his prime, he's likely to lead us in a number of races, including at least 1 Grand Tour.

We look forward to Carapaz using his road smarts and to pick up some big results while also sharing his experience with our crop of young talents.

@seancoll: We're indeed hopeful that he can fulfill his role and represent Ecuador well in the process.

@Eden95: Thanks mate. Wasn't the easiest and missed out on 1 addition but that resulted in bringing in Kasper instead.
Fingers crossed on Haig

We were able to secure one of the top 2 Australian talents this year, and by far the best Climbing talent, in Luke Tuckwell. Securing him for 85,000 was seen as an astute piece of business as we did fear we may be pushed into a bidding war to secure his services.

We're not 100% sure where we see him in his development just yet with just one of the many options displayed above. By the time the season comes to an end, we'll have to revisit this.

Luke will spend this season on loan at SEE Turtles where he will gain valuable experience with an outfit in which he should also have some freedom to join breakaways.

A rider who wasn't on our target list initially but some late scouting saw potential to help out not only this year but to be a very sold climbing domestique long into the future. It was clear others saw this potential too as we required a 100,000 wage to lock him in for this year.

Only steps away from finishing his development, we feel Archie will be a very useful rider for a very long time. His climbing ability is complemented by an incredible engine which will make him a valuable asset in the longer Pro Tour races and classics.

Welcome to the team Archie and we're sure you'll fit right in!

With Hesters sold to support our financial efforts elsewhere, it was to the Free Agency to find a replacement and we found our man!

We are very happy to have signed someone with Scott's experience on a wage of 80,000. He also makes it an Australian sprint train duo with him acting as the key lieutenant for Groves.

Miles joins us as a supporting cast for our Team Time Trial set-up, also adding to the number of Australian riders we have managed to acquire this season. Coming in on the minimum wage, we know we'll get good value out of him!

@whitejersey: I did expect that he may well go for quite a bit more given his energy stats so I was very pleased that 100k was all it took!

@jandal7: Very glad to have them and looking forward to seeing them ride for us for many years ahead!

Another rider who was a late addition onto our watchlist, we were able to secure him for what we thought was a very reasonable wage from the Free Agency of 100,000.

Kevin Rivera is by far the best climber from Costa Rica and we expect he'll be a very solid mountain domestique this season in support of both Haig and Carapaz. At the age of 28, he's a rider we expect to be a part of the team for many years to come!

Zukowsky arrived at the team in a straight swap deal for Pau Miquel. His ability both to be a strong part of our TTT unit as well as a key piece of a sprint train ensures we'll get a lot out of him.

He actually rode for us on loan from the Zwift team in 2022 in the final year of his development and was a rider we were always happy to have come back to the team. We look forward to welcoming Nickolas to the squad ahead of the 2026 season.

Another rider from the Americas to join the team this season. Craddock is a very different profile and brings experience to the squad. We were able to secure him on a minimum wage from the Free Agency of 50,000 and we look forward to his contributions to the team this season in stage races and TTTs.

Okay, we weren't quite done with North America yet! We're very pleased to have Magnus Sheffield on loan for 1 year from Specialized. His primary role will be to support our new Cobbles leader in Kasperkiewicz. We love this profile of rider and are happy to play an important part in his development.

After spending 2025 on loan at a team which allowed him to be based closer to home, when his team boss Abhi, at Philips - Hero, advised he'd need another year with us to finish his development, we were more than happy to make such an arrangement work for us. We expect Declan will be a key part of our lead-out train in support of both Groves and Thijssen. Assuming he enjoys this season with us, we may look to see if we can make this move permanent in the future!

When other plans fell through, we found ourselves with wage cap and the opportunity to take on some younger riders whose development we could support. The first of these, all coming in at the minimum wage, was Patrick Eddy.

It is our commitment to support the development of Australian cyclists and so when we saw that Patrick was available, we had to take the opportunity. We feel he can become a great asset for TTs and flat classics. The best part for us is he can complete his development with us over the course of just 2 seasons so he'll be able to learn from his fellow countrymen and get used to our team environment.

A similar sort of profile to Eddy above, Ole is also a talented TT rider with a specific liking for the shorter prologues where he is somewhat of a specialist. We feel that he too can become a solid asset to the team in 2 years time.

The final rider signed and joining the team is Stian and, if our records are correct, he may well be the first Dane (if not the first Scandinavian) to ride for the team. He will also complete his development in 2 years and could be a solid asset to add to our Cobblestone team which is slowly growing.

We had a complete overhaul at the top of this department with previous leader Shikai released to the Free Agency and Conci traded away. In their place we now have the highly talented Jack Haig, who will need to be at his best after a disappointing 2025 for his previous team, and the experienced Carapaz who is still capable of scoring well.

In their support is the retained duo of Hamilton and Soler. We then brought in reinforcements in Rivera, who will provide domestique duties in the pure mountains, and Ryan who has a final year to go in his development but is already capable of being more than useful across terrains.

We're admittedly a little light in this department with the departure of Miquel but we keep the Michael Storer as our leader who will have a challenge on his hands in the PT division but we're confident he can step up.

Although it appears he'll only have Pareja as support, Hamilton will also play a key domestique role in the classics.

We go into 2026 with an exciting sprint duo. The departure of the long-serving Jakobsen has made way for the younger Australian, Kaden Groves. We see a big year for him and we're excited to see him shine when the road goes uphill too.
Although there were many suitors, we also held onto Thijssen, who will have plenty of opportunities across stage races and the grand tours to deliver some big results. We can't wait to see what this duo can do!

They'll have local support in the more experienced Scott and the younger talent Trezise, loaned in from Philips - Hero. We'll also have our flat men to start the trains, more on them below.

An area of the team which we only started to focus on last year with Gaday as our leader in PCT but his age has reduced his ability to lead at this level.

Our exciting new addition is Kasperkiewicz who arrives with us following a strong 2025 at Specialized in which he led them towards promotion. We anticipate a big year for him, and he's got a strong supporting cast in Gaday, Monk, and loanee Sheffield, who we're excited to see develop with us this year.

Our time trial squad is not an area short on numbers but we do feel we are missing that one rider who can spearhead the team and lead us in the TT-dominant flat races. Next year, that will be Gilmore who has this final year of development ahead of him.

For now, it'll be split duties between he and Vandevelde who will now need to step up with Cosnefroy gone. Sam and Castrillo both had surprisingly good 2025 seasons so we're hoping to see more of the same. We see Zukowsky supporting our TT set-up but also riding in support of our two sprint leaders. The latter of Craddock and Scotson are here to reinforce our TTT set-up but it's likely they arrive on a single season deal.

Our commitment to developing the next generation of Australian cycling talent is clear with 4 up and coming Australians, not including Gilmore highlighted already. It is worth noting that Tuckwell will be out on loan this season.
Of the non-Aussie cast, Crause remains as our lead cobblestone talent and we've 2 additional riders to support in completing their development into handy domestiques.

Below, you will see one of the development paths for these riders alongside the year in which they will first be riding as a ready professional. We have included Gilmore and Ryan.

2 x Loaned In
1 x Loaned Out

We're very excited as we head into 2026 with a new look Hunter Valley Cycling that achieves our Sponsors goals of being led by 3 Australian riders, while ensuring we are competitive, and fostering the development of the next generation of Australian cyclists. In total, 12 of the 29 riders who will be actively riding for us next season are Australian, which is significant improvement from the 7 we had in 2025.

This roster ensures our fans will have a reason to follow every race on the Calendar as we have riders who will be able to compete for points in all terrains.

Bring on 2026!