Wout Poels

In September 2014, Team Sky announced that Poels would join them from 1 January 2015.[8] His first win for the team came in the 2015 Tirreno–Adriatico, where he led the team following the withdrawal of Chris Froome. Poels won stage 4 into Castelraimondo with an attack on the final climb and a solo descent to the finish line. He moved into the lead of the race and went on to finish seventh in the overall standings.[9][10] He later finished second overall at the Tour of Britain, winning the toughest mountain stage with an uphill finish on Hartside Fell.

In 2016, Poels won his first one-day race after sprinting to victory from a four-man group in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. It was the first monument for Team Sky and for Poels himself.[11][12]

In September 2019, Poels announced that he was joining the Bahrain–Merida team, later renamed as Bahrain–McLaren, for the 2020 season.[3] In his first season with the team, Poels finished sixth overall at the Vuelta a España.[13] The following year, he held the polka-dot jersey for four days at the 2021 Tour de France, and recorded his best finish at the race to that point – sixteenth overall. In 2022, Poels won the penultimate stage and the general classification at the Vuelta a Andalucía,[14][15] his first overall stage race win since 2016.[16] Poels then won his first Tour de France stage in 2023; having been part of a large breakaway on stage fifteen, Poels and three other riders went clear following the Col des Aravis, with Poels soloing away on the final climb towards Saint-Gervais-les-Bains and he ultimately won the stage by more than two minutes.[17][18]