The 2026 season ended at Lake Placid with Luca Martin crowned overall champion in both XCO and XCC, and Charlie Aldridge winning the final XCO race. Both did it in Cannondale Factory Racing colours. That team will not exist in 2027.
Cannondale is not alone. Lapierre PXR Racing has already folded mid-season, and Origine is ending its title sponsorship of its own Racing Division. Decathlon Ford has moved fastest to pick up the pieces. Here is where things stand as of 21 October 2026.
Cannondale Factory Racing bows out
The biggest shock came in late June. Just days after Martin won the XCO in Lenzerheide, Cannondale announced that 2026 would be the final season for its factory XC programme. That ends a lineage that stretches back to the Volvo-Cannondale team of 1994.
This was not a team in decline. Its five-rider roster of Luca Martin, Charlie Aldridge, Jolanda Neff, Ana Santos and Cole Punchard was winning races right up to the last weekend.
In its place, Cannondale will launch Cannondale Rogues in January 2027. It is a wider ambassador programme that mixes racers with content creators and community figures across mountain biking and gravel. Cannondale has said it will keep backing individual athletes, but there is no guarantee the current racers will move across.
The decision also comes amid restructuring at parent company Pon Bike which plans to close Cannondale’s Almelo assembly plant by the end of 2027.
Decathlon Ford builds a superteam
Decathlon Ford Racing confirmed the signing of the year. Luca Martin, the 2026 double World Cup overall champion, joins on a two-season deal alongside his Cannondale teammate Cole Punchard.
Punchard arrives off a breakout first elite season. The 22-year-old Canadian took bronze at the XCO World Championships in Val di Sole behind Aldridge and Tom Pidcock, and finished second at the Soldier Hollow World Cup.
The team is also changing bikes. Decathlon’s Van Rysel brand replaces Rockrider as bike and clothing supplier, and the squad will race the new Van Rysel RCR-XC, a full-suspension bike on 32in wheels. Van Rysel claims it is 230g lighter than the team’s current race bike and saves 15.5W at 35km/h. The team will keep developing it through the 2027 World Cup season before it goes on public sale.
Joshua Dubau, a long-time figurehead of the French team, is leaving. This is the confirmed 2027 roster under general manager Samuel Roces:
Luca Martin (FRA), 24: XCO and XCC World Cup overall winner
Cole Punchard (CAN), 22: XCO Worlds bronze
David List (GER), 26: 10th in World Cup overall
Alix André-Gallis (FRA), 21: European U23 XCO champion
Lucas Teste (FRA), 19: 3rd, U23 World Cup La Thuile
Samara Maxwell (NZL), 24: 2025 XCO World Cup overall winner
Savilia Blunk (USA), 27: XCC win in Lenzerheide, 4th overall
Greta Seiwald (ITA), 29: Cape Epic stage winner
Lapierre PXR Racing collapses
The second closure came without warning. Lapierre PXR Racing only launched in January 2026. It was built on the old Ghost Factory Racing structure, with riders from both Ghost and the former Lapierre squad.
Then parent company Accell Group, owner of Lapierre, Ghost, Haibike and Raleigh, entered insolvency proceedings on 6 August. On 2 September, Lapierre said it could no longer fund the team, which ended its season on the spot. Lapierre itself has until 28 February 2027 to find an investor.
The World Championships in Val di Sole became the team’s final race, and it went out on a high: Nicole Koller took bronze behind Martina Berta and Sina Frei. Anne Terpstra used the same race to end her World Cup career, citing the team’s demise as the reason.
That leaves Koller, Caroline Bohé, Anton Cooper and Tobias Lillelund looking for new homes.
Origine steps back, the team plays on
Origine Racing Division is losing its name sponsor despite one of the best seasons in the paddock. Team manager Maxime Marotte confirmed in September that 2026 is the last year of the partnership with the French bike brand.
The results make the timing striking. In just two seasons, the team logged at least 24 wins and 74 podiums. Those include Naël Rouffiac’s U23 world title, Berta’s first elite XCO win at home in La Thuile and two XCC wins for Mathis Azzaro.
Unlike Cannondale, the team intends to carry on in 2027 under a new title sponsor. As of 21 October, that sponsor has not been named.
Still looking: the riders yet to land
Charlie Aldridge is the biggest name still unsigned. The reigning European champion and Val di Sole Worlds medallist closed Cannondale’s history with victory at Lake Placid. He was reported as still without a 2027 contract on 17 October.
Jolanda Neff is linked with a move to Fenix-Premier Tech. Her race programme has not been confirmed, including whether it will mean a return to the road.
Ana Santos, the fifth Cannondale rider, has no announced destination.
From Lapierre PXR, Nicole Koller is the standout free agent after her Worlds bronze. Bohé, Cooper and Lillelund are also unattached.
One unconfirmed paddock rumour suggested Cannondale’s staff could reappear around an Enve-backed XC team. Nothing official has followed.
The bigger picture
32in wheels arrive in force. Decathlon Ford is not the only team going big. Thömus Maxon was the first to race 32in wheels at a World Cup. Scott-SRAM’s Filippo Colombo and Fabio Püntener raced a 32in Spark prototype at Soldier Hollow, and Trek has also raced new 32in bikes. Expect most of the field on the bigger wheel next year.
A lifeline from the road? The UCI has approved a rule change for 2027 that lets XCO, cyclocross, track and gravel points count towards a team’s road ranking. A World Cup win is worth 200 points and a world title 300. The catch is that the rider must be among a men’s team’s top 20 scorers or a women’s team’s top 8. That could make off-road stars more attractive to road teams chasing ranking points.
Licences hold for now. The ten top-ranked teams were granted two-year World Series licences covering 2026 and 2027, so most established squads keep guaranteed entry next season.
A longer season? A leaked provisional calendar points to 12 XCO/XCC rounds in 2027. It starts in Europe in mid-April and finishes with two rounds outside Europe in late September and October. The World Series has not confirmed it.