The 2025 cycling season wrapped up just over a week ago, which means it’s time to take stock. Whether it was a top signing or an opportunistic pick-up, WielerFlits compiles in this article—with retrospective insight—the worst transfers in cycling from the past season. We present them in alphabetical order.
Marc Hirschi (Tudor Pro Cycling)
Marc Hirschi - photo: Tudor Pro Cycling
If you look at Marc Hirschi’s autumn season and see ten top-12 finishes, you might say: don’t complain so much. But those numerous podiums were in relatively smaller races. Especially in his week of truth—from the Amstel Gold Race to Liège-Bastogne-Liège—the Swiss rider didn’t deliver. While in the team of his agent Fabian Cancellara, he was supposed to be a match made in heaven. After two standout seasons, a lot was expected from Hirschi once again. He has not been able to meet those expectations. In the UCI Ranking, the Swiss finished sixth last year. This year, he ended as number 56 in the world.
Lazkano in the early breakaway of Paris-Roubaix - photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
Oier Lazkano impressed two years in a row, both during the classics season and beyond. This earned the former Spanish champion a big move from Movistar to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. That partnership turned into a major fiasco. His best result was nineteenth place in the individual time trial at the Volta ao Algarve in February. His last race was Paris-Roubaix, where he dropped back to 117th after featuring in the early breakaway. After that, there was an unsettling silence surrounding the Spaniard. What exactly is going on remains unclear to the general public.
Alexey Lutsenko (Israel-Premier Tech)
photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
To be honest, Alexey Lutsenko’s peak season in 2019 is long behind him, and he only approached that level somewhat in 2021 and 2023. The thought last winter was that a change of scenery might rejuvenate him at Israel-Premier Tech. It was the multiple Kazakh champion’s (33) first transfer ever, but likely also his last.
Lutsenko rode a terrible season; only in his debut year in 2013 did he score fewer UCI points. He did finish fourth in the Coppi & Bartali, but that was behind Ben Tulett, Mark Donovan, and Igor Arrieta—riders who are normally not in the same league with Lutsenko.
Ben O’Connor (Jayco AlUla)
After Simon Yates’ departure, Jayco AlUla got their dream leader: Ben O’Connor. An Australian GC contender of world-class calibre, who was fourth in the 2024 Giro d’Italia and second in the Vuelta a España. Also in numerous other stage races and at the World Championships, the Aussie competed for top prizes in 2024. However, last season was a few levels below that form.
His main goal was the Tour de France, where he aimed for a top-5 finish in the overall classification. Due to a crash in the opening stage, that goal was never realized, although after numerous attack attempts he did win the queen stage of the Tour—a very nice consolation prize. Still, O’Connor finished fourth in the UCI Ranking last year; this year, we have to look all the way down to 88th.
Maxim Van Gils (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe)
EF Education-EasyPost boasts Kasper Asgreen, Alexis Baudin, and Madis Mihkels, but Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe takes the crown. While Jan Tratnik posted his best season ever last year with Visma | Lease a Bike, 2025 was the worst year for the Slovenian since 2014. Laurence Pithie and the aforementioned Oier Lazkano also had their worst pro seasons to date.
However, Maxim Van Gils’ decline was significant as well. The Belgian left Lotto last year amid a lot of fuss to join the German powerhouse team. A stage win in the Ruta del Sol and the Tour of Norway, combined with a third place in the Clásica San Sebastián, hardly makes up for the strong run he had from mid-February to early June last year.
Of course, there were several other transfers that didn’t quite pan out. Alberto Bettiol immediately stands out, though he moved to XDS Astana midway through 2024. Diego Ulissi’s transfer to the Chinese-Kazakh team also failed to produce the results he might have hoped for. But join the discussion: which transfer do you think was the worst over the past year?
O'Connor had a tough season with one standout moment - photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
Maxim Van Gils faced quite a bit of bad luck this year - photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
