{"id":74189,"date":"2025-08-16T13:39:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/74189\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T13:39:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:39:02","slug":"why-is-it-that-belgian-cyclists-do-not-serve-out-their-contracts-lefevere-explains-details-of-evenepoels-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/74189\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is it that Belgian cyclists do not serve out their contracts? Lefevere explains details of Evenepoel\u2019s transfer"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Remco Evenepoel<\/a>, the biggest transfer of the season<\/a> has already been completed. The Belgian is leaving Soudal Quick-Step<\/a> and choosing a new adventure with Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. He still had a contract with the Belgian team until 2026, but that has been bought out. A pattern has emerged where Belgian riders do not serve out their contracts, and Patrick Lefevere<\/a> knows why.\u201cIn the past few weeks, I\u2019ve heard this so often: \u2018Soudal\u2013Quick-Step has been too soft in the transfer of Remco Evenepoel, they gave in too quickly, they allowed themselves to be pushed around.\u2019 Or the way it comes directly to me: \u2018With you, Patrick, it certainly would not have happened.\u2019 Everyone says it with the best intentions, but without much knowledge of the context around contracts,\u201d Lefevere begins his account in a column for Het Nieuwsblad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne important question: what have been the big \u2018three-party agreements\u2019 in cycling recently? The transfers where riders switch teams before their contract ends? Remco, Maxim Van Gils, and Cian Uijtdebroeks. If we go further back in time, we can add Wout van Aert to the list. Back then, the court had to give a ruling on his move to Jumbo-Visma, but in the end the rider also got what he wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"remcoBelgian cycling world works differently: “Belgian riders are employees”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe common denominator in all those early transfers is clear: they always involve Belgians,\u201d says the former CEO of Soudal Quick-Step. And that is no coincidence. \u201cFew people know this, but Belgian cyclists are employees. They are officially employed by the Belgian cycling federation. At Soudal Quick-Step we do not pay the wages directly to our Belgian riders, but instead we pay those to the Belgian federation, which then, after withholding payroll tax and social security contributions, passes them on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe consequence of that whole arrangement? Belgian riders fall under ordinary \u2018labor law.\u2019 They automatically receive holiday pay and have insurance for workplace accidents. Good for them, but for the teams that means that they are not exactly the cheapest riders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point I want to make here: if teams employ riders as freelancers \u2013 which in many countries is perfectly legal \u2013 then you can include real buyout clauses in those contracts and you can \u2018cement\u2019 the riders for years. It is no secret that UAE does this. With Belgian riders that is not possible in principle, because as employees they can always rely on the so-called \u2018law of \u201978,\u2019 based on which the compensation is limited to the salary of the remaining contract period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"remco“Remco himself will know who he has to thank… and that definitely includes the Belgian legislator”<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when my successor Jurgen For\u00e9 says that he \u2018had no desire to go to court,\u2019 it should be understood in that context. In a contractual dispute with a Belgian rider, as a team you are not in a strong legal position. The cases of Uijtdebroeks and Van Aert I am less familiar with, but I assume Belgian labor law also ensured at that time that manageable buyouts or compensations came out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that is why Evenepoel\u2019s transfer could not be stopped by Soudal Quick-Step. \u201cAs I said last week: Remco\u2019s transfer is well deserved. My only remark: I kind of know who made sure everything came together, and those are not necessarily the people standing in the official photo, but no hard feelings. Remco himself will know who he has to thank… and that certainly also includes the Belgian legislator.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Remco Evenepoel, the biggest transfer of the season has already been completed. The Belgian is leaving Soudal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-74189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}