Big budget teams like UAE "kill the competitiveness of the smaller teams" according to Lotto boss

There's no doubt that the amount of money in the sport of cycling is growing. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for the competitiveness of the sport though, remains a hotly-contested debate. According to Lotto team boss Nikolas Maes, we might be approaching the time a salary cap is needed.

"If you have ten million to spare like UAE Team Emirates - XRG and you buy ten riders with a million salary, then you have a big team. But in doing so they also kill the competitiveness of the smaller teams," Maes explains his thoughts in conversation with In De Leiderstrui. "A salary cap has already been suggested as an idea. That is difficult to implement, but would not be bad for the sport. Without a salary cap we are going to a competition with four teams that can still win."

Lotto themselves have felt the effects of having a smaller budget this off-season, losing notable riders such as Florian Vermeersch to UAE, Victor Campenaerts to Team Visma | Lease a Bike and Maxim van Gils to Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe among others. Especially the latter of those mentioned, seems to still erk Maes and Lotto.

"It is up to the UCI to ensure a training allowance for riders like Van Gils. We are also a training team, because our development team is really good and we bring in a lot of talent, but we lose half of the talent within three years," he assesses in conclusion. "That is a shame for the energy you put into it. That costs money and energy that we do not put into our first team, but into the development team. But we have to do that too, because our riders are now almost one hundred percent our own talent."