The Jayco-AlUla groups have accomplished their purposes for locations within the males’s and ladies’s WorldTour and are actually eager to look to their future, satisfied that their future and their budgets are in place for the following three-year WorldTour cycle.
The Australian group surprisingly missed the important thing UCI registration deadline of October 15 after group proprietor Gerry Ryan reportedly failed to supply the financial institution assure that underwrites the groups’ salaries.
“We got here fairly near not having a group for subsequent 12 months,” group supervisor Brent Copeland admitted to Daniel Benson’s Substack.
Mavi García has left the ladies’s Liv AlUla Jayco group, however Ruby Roseman-Gannon and Letizia Paternoster stay to guide an bold younger lineup.
A change of technique to focus on particular UCI rating factors
2025 was arguably one of many Australian group’s most tough seasons. The ladies’s group gained simply 5 races, whereas the boys’s group gained 19 races, however they’d hoped for far more.
2025 turned a battle of survival, chasing UCI factors, whereas attempting to rebuild and reboot for the longer term.
“We gained the Queen stage on the Giro to Sestrière with Chris Harper and the Queen stage on the Tour with Ben O’Connor, we have been additionally one among solely 5 groups to win a WorldTour stage race with Paul Double, however we completed sixteenth within the UCI group rating that decides the following WorldTour licences,” Copeland factors out.
Copeland and Bates have determined to alter tack for 2026 and past for the boys’s group, opting to stroll a high quality line between concentrating on main victories, whereas additionally scoring sufficient UCI factors to keep away from any relegation worries. The group’s roster and future new signings shall be tailored to those twin targets.
“I am not saying we’ll race like XDS Astana did this 12 months, however we’ll strategically have a look at the races the place we will decide up factors,” Copeland says.
“Groups are determined to hit the bottom working in 2026, to verify they’re sitting in a protected spot for the three-year sporting standards and so the following WorldTour spots. When Tadej Pogačar and UAE win so many races, you must adapt your technique, that is solely logical.”
The precise race and factors technique shall be Bate’s duty.
“We’ve necessary companions that wish to see our jersey on the rostrum, however on the similar time, we should be taking good care of enterprise within the background across the factors,” Bates says.
“Ben O’Connor is able to a top-five in a Grand Tour, and that is an necessary aim for us, so we have to help him to get to that end result.
“On the similar time, guys like Michael Matthews, Mauro Schmid and others are nice at one-day Classics and races, to allow them to win but in addition rating a variety of factors throughout the season.
“The position of the efficiency group is to dissect the season and attempt to get right down to that granular stage of element round what we are attempting to realize at completely different races and completely different moments of the season. We are going to goal extra one-day races, the place there are extra factors on supply, and have completely different targets for smaller stage races.”
Jayco-AlUla introduced the signing of Pascal Ackerman this week, and he arguably suits into this points-scoring group, moderately than being the group’s designated sprinter. Signing Alessandro Covi from UAE Crew Emirates-XRG and Andrea Vendrame from Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale are a part of the identical factors technique.
Caleb Ewan, Dylan Groenewegen, Chris Harper, Eddie Dunbar, and different riders have left the group, reflecting the transfer away from pure sprinting, lead-out trains and Grand Tour racing.
Jayco-AlUla have adopted to the UCI factors system, realizing that one-day races supply extra alternatives and extra factors than levels. Like different groups, they’re additionally utilizing information analysts as they construct their race calendar, to assist perceive hope they will maximise factors in sure moments of the season.
“It’s sophisticated, however that is the trendy WorldTour,” Bates says. “We have some actually nice folks concerned, and we’re utilizing these subsequent weeks to actually plan accordingly for subsequent season.”
“Then it is acquired to be managed nicely, as a result of riders all have their concepts, they usually all wish to win. However in case you handle that group nicely, get them working collectively, you provide you with a very good answer that gives a springboard and safety for the entire group.”
Getting O’Connor and Matthews again to their finest, serving to the younger ladies’s group develop
Ben O’Connor and Michael Matthews stand out as group leaders within the males’s roster. Each are confirmed skills, push themselves to achieve success, however want the appropriate group help.
“Riders could have peaks and troughs throughout their careers, and we’re right here to assist them attain the best peaks and work by the troughs,” Bates says.
“Ben had an absolute stellar 2024, whereas this 12 months he definitely had some hiccups and challenges, which prevented him from having the ability to race and carry out at his finest. But he nonetheless gained a stage of the Tour de France, let’s not overlook that.
“He is an bold man and will be very crucial of himself as a result of he desires to get the very best out of himself. We’re right here to help him with that and set lofty however achievable targets on the similar time.
“It is the identical with Michael. He is a stalwart of the group, and we definitely know what he is able to. Hopefully, his outing of the game this 12 months attributable to his pulmonary embolism has given him an opportunity to return again stronger and ship outcomes on the most important stage.
Jayco-AlUla will signal or affirm a number of extra riders within the coming days to finish their 2026 roster from the quite a few proficient riders which might be nonetheless available on the market. They will even faucet into the Hagens Berman Jayco growth group managed by Axel Merckx, swapping riders throughout the group to make the most of having a growth group.
Bates will even work on getting the complete potential out of the complete roster, together with Luke Plapp, Mauro Schmid and others.
“We will work with Luke Plapp to assist him discover extra consistency and develop right into a mature bike rider,” Bates says of the proficient Australian.
“Mauro is a vital rider on the group, then we have mountain world champion Alan Hatherly, who’s seeking to step up on the street. I am wanting ahead to seeing what Alessandro Covi and Andrea Vendrame can do with extra freedom to trip for themselves.”
Wim Stroetinga will take over from Bates because the sporting supervisor of the Liv AlUla Jayco ladies’s group.
The Australian group was one of many strongest within the ladies’s peloton and had Annemiek van Vleuten later in her profession for 5 years, however have been surpassed by different, maybe extra rich, groups in recent times.
“There’s quite a bit to be enthusiastic about within the ladies’s group,” Bates insists.
“Perhaps they flew just a little below the radar this 12 months, however there’s a variety of indicators that they are on an amazing trajectory into 2026. I do know that there is a variety of pleasure inside the rider group about what they will obtain collectively.
“Mavi García has left, however we felt that our focus needs to be extra concerning the subsequent two to a few years. We’ve Monica Trinca, who was seventh within the Vuelta España Femenina; there’s Letizia Paternoster, Ruby Roseman-Gannon, Silke Smulders and Ella Wyllie, who was simply exterior of the highest 10 within the Tour de France Femmes.”
Jayco-Alula and Liv AlUla Jayco will start their 2026 season on the Australian nationwide championships in early January, on the brand new course in Perth, after which once more goal the Santos Tour Down Underneath.
They gained the boys’s and girls’s street race titles in 2025 with Lucinda Stewart and Luke Durbridge, with Plapp additionally profitable the boys’s time trial.
O’Connor will even goal the street race in 2026, on dwelling roads in Perth. He’s already down below for the winter.
“It is all the time motivating to attempt to deliver dwelling the inexperienced and gold, then carry that good momentum immediately into the Tour Down Underneath,” Bates stated with a way of newfound ambition.
“Ben missed nationals final 12 months attributable to household causes, however he is actually excited to race this time.
“We’re the one Australian-registered WorldTour group, each women and men, so it is necessary for us to go ‘dwelling’ and begin the season off nicely.”