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Teams & Riders The Great Big Cycling Transfers, Extensions, and Rumours Thread

Page 412 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
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I came to greatly dislike transfer season as a Movistar supporter, and it's been like this for a while. Everybody gets to show off their new shiny toys while I scroll through dozens of pages to maybe get a crumb of information about which young spanish talent or which big rider Eusebio managed to disgruntle this time around.
 
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I came to greatly dislike transfer season as a Movistar supporter, and it's been like this for a while. Everybody gets to show off their new shiny toys while I scroll through dozens of pages to maybe get a crumb of information about which young spanish talent or which big rider Eusebio managed to disgruntle this time around.

Movistar is apparently in pole position for Castrillo, but of course with Aranburu and Lazkano leaving it would still be a bad transfer period for them. It's pretty simple, they have one of the lowest budget in the WT probably by now. Just how it goes, take it from a Lotto fan, you'll get used to it

Aular and Tesfatsion were also rumored. The first one not 100% sure given the Caja Rural clinic case is still running. And I'm guessing they are also trying to get Berrade
 
Movistar is apparently in pole position for Castrillo, but of course with Aranburu and Lazkano leaving it would still be a bad transfer period for them. It's pretty simple, they have one of the lowest budget in the WT probably by now. Just how it goes, take it from a Lotto fan, you'll get used to it

Aular and Tesfatsion were also rumored. The first one not 100% sure given the Caja Rural clinic case is still running. And I'm guessing they are also trying to get Berrade
If I was a pro rider and I saw what happened with cavagna, I wouldnt move to movistar. They have no appeal in terms of development
 
Luca Van Boven transfer to Wanty is now official. Louis Barré next in line (unless there is another surprise like Rutsch)

Regarding Movistar - It is not a bad place for a Spanish, Portuguese or Latam rider. Castrillo will be fine there, better than Astaná (although they might progress now with the chinese funds). Movistar Men's team is not the greatest environment for a non spanish speaking rider.

As for Cavagna, I think both parties are to blame.
 
As RedheadDane mentioned in the cool name thread, Ceratizit have now also started to sign new riders and not only say goodbye to their current ones, with French climber Dilyxine Miermont joining them next year. According to Tuttobiciweb a possible explanation for the team's lack of transfers so far is that the team is currently discussing a merger with Lotto Dstny Ladies. Both teams are riding on Orbea bikes, but I don't know how reliable the story is.

Speaking of teams that may or may not be in financial trouble, Miermont's current employer, the St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93 women's team, has been in danger of folding for months now due to Mavic no longer wanting to provide anything other than equipment to the them. However it looks like the team has been saved now, something which will be officially announced on October 10th. Their teaser includes a photo which I believe is of Marion Bunel, and if that is the case, then I assume she will (be forced to) honour her 2025 contract instead of moving to Visma.
 
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Beautiful to follow this topic:


Two days later the GM goes nuts and denies everything

 
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Beautiful to follow this topic:


Two days later the GM goes nuts and denies everything


And I repeat, if they want out they are out, valid contract or not, they are Belgian, they have a law that legally bails them out. Heulot needs to see a fricking Belgian lawyer that can explain that to him before opening his mouth probably, he has no leg to stand on. Putting his thrust in the UCI is also wild. It's the UCI ffs. In Football the FIFA does everything they can to stop this cause they realize how bad it is for their sport (they basically suspend players who do it), but the UCI will maybe understand that 10 years from now. Their rules do not protect Lotto against someone breaking their contract unilaterally when it's done legally, and the Belgian "law of '78" makes that possible. I assume there's other European countries with similar laws.

Also even if a court says that breaking the contract was illegal, the UCI would still only punish the rider by letting him pay a fee to the team similar to his remaining salary, which is literally the same as what the law of 78 in Belgium says you have to do when unilaterally breaking a contract. For Van Gils that will probably still be around 1.5M so it's something (but obviously nothing for ChinAstana), for young guys like Widar it's literally nothing. So yes rich teams can buy every Belgian whenever they want, also Evenepoel btw, Lefevere would have nothing to say if Remco really wants to leave and he just puts 6M on the table. It's especially bad for (smaller) teams who take in young Belgian. Great that you just took in a talented junior, but when he does good he'll just break his contract for not even 100k to go to a super team.

Other possible punishments when it's not done legally is a 3 month suspension (hardest sanction, UCI won't have the balls to do it), a fine for the team signing the rider (for Van Gils probably around 500k) and also for the manager (for Van Gils it would probably be around 100k but watch ChinAstana pay it). The manager (Carera in this case ofc) could risk his license getting taken away for a month and the team could risk not being able to register new riders for 12 month (but then again, what does that even do, they just can't transfer riders mid season). But, like I said, if I understand it correctly, the UCI first looks if the contract breaking is done illegaly, otherwise they won't do ***, and with the law of 78 it is legally as long as someone pays his remaining salary as a compensation.

In short, rules don't protect teams from rich teams poaching their riders mid contract, or at least not for Belgian riders. Uijtdebroecks also used this law last year btw (or threatened with it behind the scenes, also Carera of course), Van Aert was ordered by a court to use it. In general people who use this law are criticized heavily in football in Belgium. Fans hate it, teams (obviously) hate it, but it seems a bit different in cycling. The only way to prevent Van Gils from doing it is to break open his contract and give him way more money, which for Lotto is of course impossibe at this moment. For Widar it's definitely over, shouldn't even try to keep him honestly. Most of the time they don't actually use the law in the end, cause teams realize they have no leg to stand on so they just agree with a "low" transfer fee (but one that's higher than the compensation). If ChinAstana for example pays 2M to Lotto they might agree.
 
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In short, rules don't protect teams from rich teams poaching their riders mid contract, or at least not for Belgian riders. Uijtdebroecks also used this law last year btw (or threatened with it behind the scenes, also Carera of course), Van Aert was ordered by a court to use it. In general people who use this law are criticized heavily in football in Belgium. Fans hate it, teams (obviously) hate it, but it seems a bit different in cycling. The only way to prevent Van Gils from doing it is to break open his contract and give him way more money, which for Lotto is of course impossibe at this moment. For Widar it's definitely over, shouldn't even try to keep him honestly. Most of the time they don't actually use the law in the end, cause teams realize they have no leg to stand on so they just agree with a "low" transfer fee (but one that's higher than the compensation). If ChinAstana for example pays 2M to Lotto they might agree.

in that case Lotto should shut up and take the money
 
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Well this aged badly then ;)

Just waiting for that Krijnsen pro with Q36.5 announcement.

Any day now...

Just to be clear; there has been no rumours, but it seems likely.
 
And I repeat, if they want out they are out, valid contract or not, they are Belgian, they have a law that legally bails them out.
Not relevant to Van Gils, but would the application of that not depend on where the Belgian rider is contracted?

If a Belgian rider for Trek, EF, Ineos or Jayco has a contract binding under US, UK or Australian law (yes, I am sidestepping whether there is an EU harmonisation of laws, and am guessing that UAE and BV might not register contracts in those countries), does his Belgianness still exempt him? I don't think Belgian laws could prevent someone being sued under (eg) US law for breach of a US contract.
 
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Not relevant to Van Gils, but would the application of that not depend on where the Belgian rider is contracted?

If a Belgian rider for Trek, EF, Ineos or Jayco has a contract binding under US, UK or Australian law (yes, I am sidestepping whether there is an EU harmonisation of laws, and am guessing that UAE and BV might not register contracts in those countries), does his Belgianness still exempt him? I don't think Belgian laws could prevent someone being sued under (eg) US law for breach of a US contract.

Well I was thinking about that when I was writing it yesterday and I'm honestly not sure. You would think so yes, but then again, it doesn't really matter as UCI rules or punishments aren't hard enough as the compensations/fines are basically the same as the law of 78 (they wouldn't scare a rich team) unless the UCI really has the balls to suspend someone. Also I've heard from others that some other European countries have similar laws, for example I've heard Uijtdebroecks threatened using it (and it was indeed a question which law would actually matter in that case). Also, there's maybe a difference between riders who are just regular employees or riders who are contracted as self employed, again not sure there. It's complicated and a mess, but the point was that Heulot can whine (I get it, it is frustrated, he has every right to be mad) all he wants, it's not going to matter when they actually break the contract, unless UCI at some point says NO is NO like the FIFA.
 
Sergio Samitier signs with Cofidis for three years.

He is a guy I've been waiting for the breakthrough of ever since he signed with Movistar as the 'next big thing' in Spanish cycling. Never really happened, and was probably never going to either. He came through during a bit of a dark ages in Spanish talent development it seems, as nobody else from that generation really made it big either, like Barcelo or Jaime Castrillo for example.
 
Not relevant to Van Gils, but would the application of that not depend on where the Belgian rider is contracted?

If a Belgian rider for Trek, EF, Ineos or Jayco has a contract binding under US, UK or Australian law (yes, I am sidestepping whether there is an EU harmonisation of laws, and am guessing that UAE and BV might not register contracts in those countries), does his Belgianness still exempt him? I don't think Belgian laws could prevent someone being sued under (eg) US law for breach of a US contract.
normally in contracts they stipulate which law will be applied and which court is competent
 
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