When Lotto signed Gilbert and over payed him massively everyone put the blame on Lotto, and righfully so. They almost collapsed because of that decision. It's not like the team could just give him less money back then. It's literally the managements job to try to lowball riders, it's the rider and his agent's job to make sure that doesn't happen. The reason why Van Gils is "underpayed" is because he was dumb enough to already sign a contract in March, his OWN decision. More, he pushed for a quick extension, you know why? Cause he wanted the extra money immediately, but also because Maxim himself thought the offer was more than he should be getting at that time, apparently he was even surprised when he got the initial offer because a few months back he hit another rider and he got suspended because of it. He thought his reputation was shot and didn't want to take the risk of getting injured and as a result not being able to get a good contract. He signed that contract cause he thought it was the most riskfree way to get a lot of money. The way you're thinking a rider can just ask for more money whenever they want, every month if they get better every month. That's not how it works, or at least how it should.