After a winter transfer season dominated by the Cian Uitjdebroeks saga, Visma-Lease a Bike have been accused of trying to sign another under-contract rider, this time Andreas Kron of Lotto-Dstny.
The Dutch squad eventually signed Uijtdebroeks after paying a fee to his former team Bora-Hansgrohe in order to break his contract a year early. In contrast to other sports like football, such a move is rare in cycling, where riders usually only move teams upon the expiration of their contracts.
Lotto-Dstny CEO Stéphane Heulot has claimed that Visma-Lease a Bike attempted to add Kron to their ranks this off-season, too. The 25-year-old Dane won the second stage of the Vuelta a España this past season and finished fourth at Amstel Gold Race back in April as he enjoyed his best season as a pro.
"This kind of process can kill off the interest in the races," Heulot said to RTBF about the practice of riders breaking contracts to move to one of the biggest teams in the peloton. "It becomes complicated to keep up with teams with bigger budgets and three times the firepower of our own.
"What I find distressing is that the manager of the host team [Richard Plugge] is the chairman of the AIGCP, the team's association. If you have a chairman who doesn't play by the rules, it's hard to trust him. They tried to do the same thing here with Andreas Kron. It's annoying and it's not in the spirit of serving cycling."
RTBF contacted Visma-Lease a Bike in response to the claim. The Dutch squad said that Kron claimed to have a clause in a contract allowing him to leave, though that looks to have not been the case.
"Kron contacted us and claimed to have a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave if it was to a WorldTour team. However, it turned out that this wasn't the case (or at least his team disputed it), so we withdrew," Visma-Lease a Bike said.
Riders breaking contracts to move elsewhere isn't a new idea in cycling – WorldTour teams have 'bought' talented young riders from smaller teams in the past. Egan Bernal and Iván Sosa both moved from Androni to Ineos Grenadiers in this fashion.
The move has caused controversy – and court cases – in the past, too, with Wout van Aert still locked in a legal battle to avoid paying compensation after his move from Vérandas Willems to Visma.
Heulot lamented the state of cycling's modern transfer market, blaming agents looking to make money from their riders and calling the Uijtdebroeks saga "distressing and very bad for cycling".
"These are things that weren't done a few years ago," Heulot said. "There are more and more agents in our business. Some want to make money off the backs of the riders and not serve their careers, even if we shouldn't put them all in the same basket.
"Cian's case is distressing and very bad for cycling. As soon as you don't respect your contract, you start sliding down a dangerous slope. We had a similar case with Caleb Ewan this summer, but it was different – we could respect the contract if he wanted, but both parties agreed to part ways."
