In previous eras of cycling, a rider breaking their contract early to move teams could have caused major controversy, but in the past few weeks, big-name riders Richard Carapaz, Filippo Ganna, and Giulio Ciccone have all announced exits before the end to join new teams without any obvious hitches.
As riders leaving their current teams early for new pastures becomes more common in the peloton – a practice not just isolated to the men's pros either, with Paula Blasi doing the same – it marks a transformation of the transfer market, with almost any rider available, in theory.
Ciccone's agent Alex Carera, whose agency A&J All Sports also represents Blasi, and a certain Tadej Pogačar, spoke to La Gazzetta dello Sport to explain some of the reasons why this is happening more and more.
"First of all, the average length of contracts has increased - by a lot. Therefore, the likelihood of arguments over a long contract, and even termination, increases," said Carera.
"In essence, if the contract is only two years long and problems arise, you shouldn't wait that long for it to expire, and it's not even worth arguing about. You might sulk for a year, and then you move on. But if, for example, the contract is five years long, it's easy to see that things are very different."
In recent years, several of the biggest riders in the world have reached agreements to leave their teams early: Remco Evenepoel and Primož Roglič both to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, and Juan Ayuso to Lidl-Trek, for example, and Carera says this is down partly to changes in team ownership.
"The second reason is even more crucial, considering that if you want to break an existing contract, you don't just have to negotiate with one team, but also have another team ready to sign you," added Carera.
"Here's the thing: until 5-6 years ago, in most cases the team owners were the team managers, often former cyclists. They didn't have a long-term vision, and they didn't risk potential penalties for signing riders from other teams.
"[Some of the] team owners are... the sponsors themselves. UAE, Decathlon, Lidl, Red Bull, to name a few. They have a more managerial, long-term vision. The cycling team is a key asset for the company, or the fund, unlike before, where there was often no entrepreneurial vision.
"And there's a greater tendency to be more 'aggressive' on the market, because they have to value the annual investment in cycling. Not to mention the fact that the capital invested is much greater. A momentous change."
The UCI overhauled the rules on how riders under contract with one WorldTour can enter into discussions and start the process of joining another. To prevent controversial poaching and the type of polemic that unfolded around the early departure of Cian Uijtdebroeks – another one of Carera's riders – from Visma to Red Bull, the UCI introduced the requirement for a three-party agreement between the rider, their current team, and the new team to enact the move.
Asked what the turning point was for the new types of transfers that were once very rare becoming more and more common by the season, Carera specifically pointed to the transfer of the Belgian, and the financial growth in the sport that followed.
"Cian Uijtdebroeks' early departure from Bora to join Visma in December 2023, a move that generated significant media attention and involved two top teams," he said.
"Until then, early contract terminations occurred once every three years; now, they're about 10 a year. And then, capital has increased enormously: in 2020, if a team had a budget of €25 million, it could be considered wealthy. Now, it would be in the bottom five."
There was one rider whose lengthy ongoing deal is an exception to the new freedom for aggression in the transfer market: Pogačar, whose 2032 contract puts him as one of the most tied-down riders to their ongoing deal, alongside those who have 'lifetime' contracts until retirement: Wout van Aert, Marianne Vos, and Mads Pedersen.
"Is Tadej Pogacar the exception?" asked La Gazzetta's Ciro Scognamiglio. "Yes, because it has too high a value, the clause is almost symbolic: Tadej has gone beyond the boundaries of cycling," replied Carera.
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