Rick Zabel and Matz Wurz Schmidt became the first athletes to transfer from Katusha-Alpecin to the Israel Cycling Academy.

Both athletes spent the past three seasons with Katusha and were under contract through 2020 when the team disbanded this year. They will be the 13th and 14th players from the 23-man team to find a team next year while Simon Spilak is set to retire.

More than half of the team, including Ilnur Zakarin, Jens Debusschere, and Nathan Haas, have signed contracts, but notable players like Alex Dowsett and Nils Pollitt have yet to announce their future plans.

"We all heard a lot about what was going to happen, and we were praying that ICA would be our team," Würz Schmidt said in a team press release. I am happy to finally have that behind me and to be able to focus on racing and helping the team achieve its goals."

"We have been watching ICA in many races over the past two years. They are aggressive and always try for the leader in the finale. I had my fingers crossed that I could land here. My first focus is on the classics, especially my dream race: Paris-Roubaix.

Both Wurzschmidt and Zabel competed in the Tour de France this season for the Swiss team, but the German was forced to abandon on stage 10 due to the flu. Zabel also won the second stage of the Tour de Yorkshire in 2019, his second career victory.

"I'm very happy, especially after what we went through," Zabel said. But now I'm looking forward: the ICA is very special, the only team to come out of Israel. I was very impressed with its success and now I get to be a part of it.

With the addition of Zabel and Wurz Schmidt, the Israel Cycling Academy has signed 20 athletes for 2020. When interviewed by Cycling News about the prospect of more players moving from Katusha, ICA media director Tsadok Yechezkeli said, "This is a process. We are starting to move."

The Israel Cycling Academy has already acquired big names Dan Martin and Andre Greipel, and Rory Sutherland, Hugo Hofstetter, Patrick Schelling, and James Piccoli have also signed with the team. The team has also signed Zach Dempster and Ruben Plaza have retired, while Sondre Horst Enger and August Jensen have moved to Liwar Redines.