One of the most surprising transfers of this session CycleMarket was to Benoît Cosnefroy at the UAE Team Emirates XRG. After eight years at Decathlon AG2R La Difesa, the team where he turned professional at the end of 2017 and where he was one of the main points of reference, the former Under-23 world champion has chosen to join the Emirati battleship for the next two years, in which there could be less space for him given the presence in the squad of great champions and several strong riders. In reality, as he himself explained to the microphones of Sporzathere won’t be many occasions in which the 30-year-old Frenchman will have to act as a wingman in his new team, on the contrary he will have a lot of freedom to seek success in secondary races and allow the team to reach (and perhaps exceed) 100 victories in a season, after stopping at 97 in 2025.
“It’s the WorldTour team that gives me the most freedom – the words of Cosnefroy – It might seem strange, because everyone thinks that in the UAE we should race for Tadej Pogačar. But I myself will rarely race alongside Tadej. They brought me into the team to win second rate races, not to shoot for Tadej at the Tour“.
Also for this reason, the Emirati team will participate in many more races on the French calendar in 2026, in some of which they have never lined up at the start: “I think they looked at my palmares. Because UAE will run the GP du Morbihan for the first time, a race that I have already won three times“.
The 30-year-old’s program will include the first four rounds of the Challenge Mallorca, followed by Clasica Jaen, Vuelta a Andalucia, Boucles Drôme-Ardèche, Arrow of Brabant, Triptych of the Ardennes and the aforementioned GP du Morbihan, while at the moment no Grand Tour is planned: “I don’t mind – admitted the transalpine rider – As a young man you dream of taking part in a Grand Tour one day. But they are not the races that give me the most satisfaction“.
“You have to prepare for a month, then you race a Grand Tour for another month and finally you need another month to recover – added the former U23 world champion – In those three months I would much rather run other races and try to win oneHowever, Cosnefroy does not rule out returning to the Tour de France in the future: “Never say never. I would be happy to return to the Tour, but I wouldn’t mind if it didn’t happen“.
The class of ’95 also spoke about his farewell to the Decathlon AG2R: “The team had already informed me at the beginning of the season that they would not renew my contract. They told me honestly that I was no longer part of their future plans. I felt the need for a different environment. It was the right time to leave. We therefore parted on good terms.”
Then came the surprising signature with the UAE: “I didn’t expect it either. I always knew that UAE Team Emirates was interested in me. But there is a long way to go between interest and signing a contract. Especially with this team. Why many runners want to race for the UAE and there are few places available“.
