Should Lotto Soudal Fear Laziness? Riders do not have any transfers in case of landing

With a UCI short of nearly 900 points and a limited calendar to go, the drop is now very close for Lotto-Soudal. The automatic consequence of this would be that all riders could leave the team without compensation.

“This is a UCI standard rule,” explains Dries Smits, founder of real estate agency Squadra Sports Management. “All teams are required to include a clause in their contracts that allows riders to terminate their commitment free of charge if they lose their World Tour license.”

To put it in football terms: They can leave with a free transfer. In retrospect, it turns out that hardly any of the riders ever appealed to this rule. John Lelang, who remains Lotto-Soudal’s CEO until further notice, stresses that he does not expect the team to lose a number of riders. “We have complete confidence that our riders will remain loyal to the team,” it seemed. “Caleb Ewan and Arnaud de Lee have already confirmed in the media that they will stay with the team if it comes to that.”

low impact

Most places were filled in with the other teams in the meantime, so it seems almost impossible that a series of riders are still about to leave. A few can still take advantage of the option to look for other places.

“In terms of the sport, nothing changes for these riders,” Smits said. “In the event of relegation, Lotto Soudal will still have the right to start all the important matches next year. On top of that, there will only be clarity about any deterioration in a few weeks. Then not only were almost all places taken, the budgets were already used. So I appreciate that the Lotto Soudal relegation in terms of riders still leaving won’t have any effect, although it’s always possible that someone here or there might want to take advantage of that rule.”