Luca Shaw is one of the hottest properties on the circuit right now… and he’s up for grabs.

SRAM/TLD has announced this morning that Luca will be moving on after a massively successful three seasons with the team. He finished 2nd overall in the Junior World Cup in 2014. He cracked the top ten just a few rounds into his inaugural Elite World Cup season in 2015. He rode to his first Elite World Cup podium and finished in the top ten overall in 2016.

Shaw said: “Making the decision to leave SRAM – TLD and go on to something different was easily the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make. It was so hard because of what we had as a team—I don’t even like to use the word ‘team’ because it felt way more just like a group of friends or family.”

“For the past three-and-a-half years I’ve been traveling with all of the SRAM guys. It’s been so good for me in so many ways. I think [that] where it’s been so different is that I had to do a lot of stuff on my own, and I had to learn a lot of stuff on my own.

“I didn’t have a lot of the stuff that, especially when I was a junior, the other big teams and competitors had. But, I wouldn’t want it any other way. I learned so much and I had so much more fun doing it that way. And also, I learned to appreciate every little thing that was given to me.”

Where to next?

Well, we put our stall out early with the Luca Shaw rumours, we have a strong suspicion he’ll be heading to Santa Cruz. Rob Warner first let it slip in the Lenzerheide live stream and he’s also appeared in the Syndicate team videos. He’s ridden a V10 all year so it would be an easy transition for him too.

Of course, nothing is confirmed, but if we had to put our money on it, that would be our guess.

Is it just a little too convenient that Luca Shaw and Loris Vergier announced their departures on the same day? We’ll wait and see…