Gerald Ciolek (1986, MTN-Qhubeka) is one of the big names without a contract for next season. According to Spanish website Biciclismo, the German who won Milan-San Remo in 2013, should join the Cult Energy-Stölting Professional Continental team in 2016. Reportedly, the agreement has almost been reached and so he will join other German riders like Fabian Wegmann and Linus Gerdemann.

The MTN-Qhubeka decided not to renew Ciolek's contract and so he ends a three-year stint with the South African team. He touched the sky in 2013 when he beat Sagan to win Milan-San Remo. However, 2015 was a poor year, with a second place in Tirreno-Adriatico the only result to stand out and non-selections for the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. In fact, he has not won since last year's Vuelta a Andalucia 20 months ago.

Ciolek excelled at a young age, winning the German Championships in 2005 when he was not even 20 years (later he was runner-up in 2011 and 2013) and U23 World Champion in 2006.

His palamres include a stage victory in the 2009 Vuelta and stages in Austria, Bayern-Rundfhart, Germany. He has three second places from stages at the Tour de France. However, nothing compares to his exceptional victory in the Classicissima when he created a surprise by beating Sagan in San Remo. Now he will try to offer his best to Cult Energy-Stölting  Group, a team that merges two structures, the Danish Professional Continental Cult and the German continental Stölting team.

Ciolek has previously ridden for Akud Arnolds Sicherheit (2005), Team Wiesenhof (2006), T-Mobile (2007), Team Columbia (2008), Milram (2009-2010), QuickStep/Omega Pharma-QuickStep (2011-2012 ) and MTN-Qhubka (2013-2015).

The 16 riders confirmed so far for Cult Energy-Stölting are: Michael Carbel, Linus Gerdemann, Rasmus Guldhammer, Alex Kirsch, Romain Lemarchand, Christian Mager, Mads Pedersen, Rasmus Quaade, Michael Reihs and Fabian Wegmann, who rode for Cult Energy in 2015; Thomas Koep, Sven Reutter, Lennard Kamna and Jonas Tenbrock (Stölting); Alexander Kamp (ColoCick) and Lasse Norman Hansen (Cannondale-Garmin).