Astana Kazakstan has announced the acquisition of Clément Champoussin from the ailing Arkea B&B Hotels team to add strength to the team's bid to escape the relegation zone next year and remain on the World Tour in 2026.

The UCI's next promotion/relegation cycle comes at the end of next season, and Astana is in last place among World Tour teams, behind pro teams Lot Doustony, Israel Premier Tech, and UnoX Mobility in points total for 2023-2024.

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They face an uphill battle to surpass 18th-placed Cofidis in 2025, but have signed six key signings, Alberto Betiol (EF Education Easy Post), Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates), Aaron Gate ( Burgos BH), Sergio Iguita (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe), Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Nicolas Conti (Alpecin Deceuninck).

Champsin won the Giro della Toscana this year and finished second overall in the Arctic Race in Norway. With 681 points earned this season, he is the fourth most valuable team transfer for 2025, behind Bettiol, Ulissi, and Gate.

Arcare B&B Hotels has serious concerns about the team's future, as its contracts with both title sponsors expire at the end of the 2025 season.

The transfer season is a time for teams to strengthen their roster in order to improve their rankings and qualify for the 2026-2028 World Tour. However, while Astana acquired seven veteran riders, Arkea B&B Hotels let go of Champsan before his contract expired.

“First of all, we would like to thank the management of Arkea B&B Hotels for their open and professional approach during these transfer negotiations,” Astana manager Alexandre Vinokurov said in a team press release.

“Champsan had a very strong run in the 2024 season. He will definitely get that opportunity.”

Under UCI rules, points earned by a player during the season remain with his team, so while Astana Kazakstan has not yet directly benefited from the move, their newcomers have combined for 4,718 points this year.

Will it be enough to keep them on the World Tour in 2026?

Astana Kazakstan is currently 4,782 points behind Cofidis in 18th place for the 2023-2024 point total. If all players score at the same level next year as they did this season, Astana will still be short on points in 2025 and could face relegation in 2026.

With only 27 players on next year's roster, Astana could get even more high-scoring riders.

At the time of publication, top riders for 2024 who have not yet announced their teams for next season include Fernando Gaviria (Movistar), Alex Beaudin (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Michels Madis (Intermarche Wanty), Michal Valgren and Rui Costa (both EF Education Easy Post), and Chris Harper (Jayco Alura).

The Movistar team has no problems regarding relegation in 2026 and has maintained stability with the acquisition of Jefferson Cepeda (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA).

Cepeda won the overall at the Tour of Qinghai Lake in July and also took a stage win at the Tour du Limousin. With a steady stream of finishes, the Ecuadorian-born Cepeda now has 770 points this season. Cepeda moved to Movistar from Caja Rural with Oluis Aurar (977 points).

The team has also signed Vuelta a España double stage winner Pablo Castillo (Khan Farma) and Nathanael Tesfazion (Lidl-Trek) to hold potential positions.

Lotto Destony lost his second title sponsor and will simply race as Lotto next year, but after being demoted at the end of the 2022 season, he has steadily climbed into the top 10 in the standings and currently sits 9th in the 2023-2024 point total.

However, this year's transfer season saw the team face a major predicament, letting go of players who had earned a total of approximately 5,300 points.

Lotto kept Maxime van Gils and Arnaud de Lier as their leading scorers, while also letting Victor Campenaerts go to Visma Ries a Bike, Pascal Enkhoorn to Sudar Quickstep, and Andreas Krohn to Uno X Mobility, Sylvain Monique to Cofidis, Herm Vanhoek to Q36.5, and Florian Fermersch to UAE Team Emirates.

However, the 2023 and 2024 seasons were strong and should stay safely in the top 15 as long as they continue to perform as they have with their existing riders and neo pros. Ruben Thompson (Groupama-FDJ) and Lars Kraps (Flanders Baloise) are the only new riders aside from the five Devo riders.

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale took the next biggest hit in the transfer season, mainly due to Ben O'Connor's move to Jayco Alura. The Australian earned 4,096 points this season and was a major factor in offsetting Jayco Alura's move of Simon Yates to Visma Lease-a-Bike.

The French team lost a rider who had earned a total of 3,932 points this season and could not make up for O'Connor's potential. Time trial specialist Stéphane Bissegger was the biggest gainer.

Cofidis, on the bubble in 18th place in the 2023-2024 points total, lost Guillaume Martin to Groupama-FDJ and Gorka Izagirre and Simon Geschke to retirement, but lost Alex Aramburu (Movistar), Dylan Theuns (Israel -Premiere Tech) and Emmanuel Buchmann (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) were signed. With 27 riders now confirmed for next season, there is still room to add value to the 2025 roster.

The top teams will likely continue to lead the UCI rankings, although UAE Team Emirates has dropped slightly with the departures of Ulissi and Marc Hirschi (who moved to Tudor Pro Cycling). Visma-Lease-a-Bike has acquired Simon Yates and Axel Jingle (Cofidis), while Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe has three riders from Visma and has pulled Laurens Pitti from Groupama-FDJ.

Ineos Grenadiers have struggled the most among the top five teams, losing Ethan Hayter to Quick Step and Honatan Narvaez to UAE Team Emirates.