Grab Some Popcorn—A Young Belgian and Two of Pro Cycling’s Best Teams Just Blew-Up the Off-Season

Late Saturday morning, Jumbo-Visma released a statement announcing that Belgium’s Cian Uijtdebroeks, one of the most talented young riders in the sport, would be joining the Dutch super-team on a 4-year contract–despite the fact that the 20-year-old still had one year left on his contract with BORA-hansgrohe.

With Jumbo-Visma (soon to be Visma-Lease a Bike) having released Slovenia’s Primož Roglič from his own contract a year early so that he could join–wait for it–BORA-hansgrohe, the Dutch team was in search for another GC contender, preferably a younger rider that the squad could groom to take be waiting in the wings behind Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (winner of the 2022 and 2023 Tours de France) and the United State’s Sepp Kuss (winner of the 2023 Tour of Spain).

So when Jumbo-Visma Managing Director Richard Plugge expressed the team’s interest in signing Uijtdebroeks (who had previously expressed his own displeasure with BORA-handgrohe) early last week, no one was surprised.

Indeed, Saturday’s announcement of the 20-year-old’s transfer sounded like a happy ending for everyone: Jumbo got the rider it wanted, Uijtdebroeks got the new team he wanted, and BORA most likely got a bag full of money, which would certainly help offset whatever the team paid for Roglič. Essentially, BORA got Roglič, Jumbo got Uijtdebroeks, and all was right with the world.

Until it wasn’t.

A little more than an hour after Jumbo’s announcement–and after just every major news outlet had published a story announcing the transfer–BORA released a statement of its own declaring that Uijtdebroeks was in fact NOT leaving the team for Jumbo and that the Belgian would continue riding for the German team through 2024. Awkward!

The next 24 hours brought more statements, lots of speculation, and of course, lots and lots of memes.

How Did We Get Here?

Uijtdebroeks is believed by many to be cycling’s next great grand tour contender. Coming from a small village on the border between Flanders and Wallonia, the Belgian followed a path similar to Remco Evenepoel by dominating the junior ranks and then going directly to the World Tour.

And he quickly lived up to the hype: in the first year of his 3-year deal with BORA-hansgrohe, at just 19-years-old he won two stages and the General Classification at the 2022 Tour de l’Avenir (a mini-Tour de France for riders under the age of 23), making him the youngest winner in the race’s prestigious history (recent champions include Egan Bernal and Tadej Pogačar).

This year he rode his first grand tour, the Vuelta a España and promptly finished eighth on the General Classification and second in the event’s Best Young Rider ranking. No wonder Jumbo-Visma is interested in bringing him into the fold.

But it was also at the Vuelta where things started to unravel in terms of the relationship between Uijtdebroeks and BORA-hansgrohe. In particular, tensions arose between the Belgian and his teammate, Russia’s Aleksandr Vlasov, who finished one spot ahead of his younger teammate on the General Classification.

Apparently there wasn’t much cooperation between the two riders, and Uijtdebroeks took particular offense to Vlasov attacking while Uijtdebroeks was defending seventh-place on GC. Instead of working together and supporting one another, the Belgian felt the Russian was racing against him, ultimately jumping one GC spot ahead of him by the end of the race.

Things came to a head in October, when Uijtdebroeks suffered a series of mechanicals–first on his race bike and then on his spare bike–at the Chrono des Nations, a prestigious individual time trial held each fall in western France.

After claiming that the team wasn’t taking his development seriously, rumors began to circulate a few weeks later that the Belgian was looking for another team–despite being signed with BORA-hansgrohe through 2024.

Fast forward to the beginning of last week when Plugge announced the team’s desire to one day sign Uijtdebroeks–and then seemingly made “one day” “right now” by announcing the Belgian’s arrival less than a week later.

For a moment, it appeared as if everyone got what they wanted: Uijtdebroeks got a new (and better) team, Jumbo got it’s next grand tour contender, and BORA (one can assume) got a boatload of money in exchange for releasing the Belgian from the final year of his contract. Unfortunately, the happy ending lasted about as long as it would take you to watch the first two episodes of Netflix’s “Tour de France: Unchained.”

So What Now?

Well, things are about to get complicated–and expensive.

Shortly after BORA released a response to Jumbo’s announcement, the agency that represents Uijtdebroeks released a statement of its own, saying that Uijtdebroeks has officially left the German team as of December 1st and that the paperwork was in the hands of the UCI, cycling’s international governing body. The brief statement ended by re-stating the Belgian’s plans to ride Jumbo-Visma (soon to be Visma-Lease a Bike) in 2024.

Suffice it to say, this has blown up cycling’s corner of the Internet with seemingly everyone sharing their thoughts (or memes) on the issue. Most notably, France’s Cedric Vasseur, the General Manager of Team Cofidis, scathingly took to Twitter X to slam Plugge for being both the Managing Director of Jumbo-Visma and the president of the AIGCP professional organization, literally telling Plugge to “Get out.” Wow.

Vasseur’s issue stems from the fact that this isn’t the first time that Plugge has tried to pry a rider away from another team while the rider was still under contract. Wout van Aert joined the Dutch super team in 2019 after terminating his contract with Verandas-Willems, the small Belgian team that he had been racing for previously.

The move sent van Aert to court, and ultimately cost the Belgian €662,000 in severance paid to his former team manager. So Plugge has a history of getting himself–and the riders he covets–into these kinds of situations, and that’s an awkward spot to be in when you're the head of the sport’s professional organization.

In the end, it’s all in the hands of everyone’s attorneys, with Uijtdebroeks (and Jumbo) negotiating a fee to be paid to BORA in exchange for releasing the Belgian from his contract.

In this regard, Jumbo’s premature announcement–if indeed it was premature–could cost the team financially: by going public before everyone had put pen to paper, Jumbo has given BORA all the leverage. One can only wonder what went wrong–especially given the fact that both teams seemingly worked so well together in orchestrating Roglič’s release and transfer.

In the end, we expect Uijtdebroeks to be released from his contract (for a hefty fee) and the transfer to go through, with BORA getting even more money (it’s been rumored that they’re seeking a €1,000,000 buy-out) than was originally being discussed.

In the meantime, Uijtdebroeks isn’t shying away from the drama. On Sunday, Chris Froome posted a photo to his Twitter X account that showed the Belgian tacked onto the back of a small group of riders training around Girona.

Ordinarily that’s nothing to sneeze at–riders train together all the time in the off-season. But this was interesting given the Belgian’s choice of attire. Everyone else in the photo was wearing their team kit, but what was Uijtdebroeks wearing? Black.

Is Uijtdebroeks Worth the Price?

In our opinion, absolutely. If the deal goes through, this is a major signing for Jumbo from a sporting standpoint, essentially re-stocking the team’s grand tour pantry with a rider who’s much younger and potentially even more talented than Roglič.

Uijtdebroeks will likely lead the team at the Giro d’Italia next May, then perhaps join the Tour de France squad to support Vingegaard and Kuss. He turns 21 in February, and if the rumored 4-year contract he signed with the team is in fact a reality, he has plenty of time to develop into a Tour de France contender before the end of his new deal–just as the window closes for Vingegaard and Kuss.

He’s also Belgian, which means more sponsors could come into the fold for the team, an added benefit given the fact that the team almost merged with Soudal-Quick Step just to stay afloat.

For BORA, this is about saving face and making some money on the loss of rider they have no hope of re-signing. They might regret the move a year or two down the road, but given the tension that already existed between the Belgian and the team–and the fact that the squad is “win now with Roglič” mode–this is the best they could possibly hope for.

As fans, this is just what the doctor ordered for what is quite possibly the most boring month of the year in terms of road cycling. Sure, cyclocross is awesome–and we love scanning social media for leaked photos of new team kit (and the subsequent conversations about which team’s kit has more or less or deeper or brighter colors than it did in 2023)--but this is just what we needed to spice things up while we wait for the Tour Down Under in mid-January.

And have we mentioned the memes?

So grab some popcorn, fire up your Twitter X account, and enjoy all the drama during this unexpected late-December installment of cycling’s silly transfer shenanigans.

You Might Also Like

• The Right Chain Lube Can Save You Thousands

• Everything You Need to Start E-Bike Commuting

• 7 Things You Should Do After Every Rainy Ride