Raymond Kerckhoffs • Sunday, December 10, 2023 at 8:03 PM
BORA-hansgrohe wants a lump sum payment for Cian Uijtdebroeks’ ongoing contract of approximately 1 million euros. Several sources indicate this CyclingFlits confirmed. From the side of Visma | Lease a Bike would have offered a year’s salary as compensation to the German team ‘without obligation and out of collegiality’, an insider tells us. “However, BORA-hansgrohe now wants to receive almost ten times his annual salary.”
On Saturday Visma | Lease a Bike announces that it has signed Cian Uijtdebroeks for the next four years. The message had barely been sent when 88 minutes later BORA-hansgrohe announced that it would not let the talented Belgian, who finished eighth in the last edition of the Vuelta a España, leave and would keep his contract. This caused a riot.
It is noteworthy that BORA-hansgrohe took over Primož Roglič from the Dutch team a few weeks ago, while the Slovenian still had an ongoing contract with Jumbo-Visma. Roglic’s buyout sum would be around 3 million euros. A person directly involved in that transfer leaves CyclingFlits However, we know that Roglič himself has made a deal with Jumbo-Visma to leave the team of team manager Richard Plugge. The purchase price would therefore not have been paid directly by BORA-hansgrohe.
In the same way, Uijtdebroeks now thinks he can get away from BORA-hansgrohe. This is not the fancy way when a joint agreement is reached between all three parties: the old team, the new team and the rider himself. Then there is a transfer fee (or call it a buyout fee) that the new team pays directly to the old team of the rider in question.
On December 1, Cian Uijtdebroeks’ management reportedly terminated the ongoing contract with BORA-hansgrohe. The 20-year-old Walloon talent still had a continuous contract until the end of 2024 with the team that describes itself as the ‘Band of Brothers’. In this case, the ‘departing’ rider must pay the wages still to be received for the remaining term of his contract to his old team. The new team often takes care of this amount.
According to the management agency AEJ Allsports, Uijtdebroeks terminated his contract with BORA-hansgrohe in this way on December 1 and the UCI was informed of this.
Patrick Lefevere, team manager of Soudal Quick-Step, indicates on social media that such a unilateral transition would not be possible: “The UCI must adhere to its own rules. Only if three parties agree can a transfer take place with the permission of the UCI.”
BORA-hansgrohe contradicts the transfer in a short statement on Saturday evening: “Cian Uijtdebroeks is and will remain employed by BORA-hansgrohe, also in the coming 2024 season. He is contractually bound with us until December 31, 2024.”
CyclingFlits has asked Ralph Denk, team manager of BORA-hansgrohe, whether it is true that a lump sum payment of approximately 1 million euros is being requested for Uijtdebroeks. We have not received an answer to this yet.
In 1990, at the age of 18, Raymond Kerckhoffs was the youngest journalist in the history of the Tour de France. Worked as a sports journalist at De Telegraaf from 1996 to 2020 and was chief cycling officer there for many years. Since 2020 he has been working for WielerFlits and editor-in-chief of RIDE Magazine
2023-12-10 19:03:00
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