Dan Martin weighs in Cian Uijtdebroeks debate: "Riders need to understand and respect long term contracts are a risk on both sides"
CyclingTuesday, 12 December 2023 at 15:52
Cian Uijtdebroeks and the future of his career in the peloton have quickly become the talk of the cycling world in recent days, with numerous familiar names within the sport sharing their varying opinions.
One of these to express an opinion is the decorated ex-pro Dan Martin. "I do think riders need to understand and respect long term contracts are a risk on both sides," says the Irish, former Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia winner on his official X (Twitter) account. "If bad luck strikes or expectations not met, the teams cannot just not pay a rider. So if things go well, a rider can’t just leave a team because somebody is willing to pay more!"
Martin, who moved between numerous teams during his career, also raises another point via his social media. If Team Visma | Lease a Bike wanted Uijtdebroeks and BORA - hansgrohe wanted Primoz Roglic surely a deal could have been reached between the teams.
"Bora wanted to sign Roglic from Jumbo Visma and did. JV want Uijtdebroeks," the four-time Grand Tour stage winner explains. "Have to wonder why they didn’t leverage Roglic in this deal and instead have caused a load of disruption. Or maybe they did try, were told no and resorted to this."
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- They were fighting for thirdabstractengineer06-07-2025
- great move, but let’s remember Tadej’s first TdF win. it was Jumbo then that cause a split too. and Tadej still won. these splits aren’t ideal, but 40 seconds is nothing in a mountain stage. the guys that didn’t make the split like remco haven’t show the chops to hang on wheels in the big mountains much less take time, but still putting it into perspective, it is a meh other than for making exciting watchingmij06-07-2025
- i’m not a professional cycling analyst, but it seems like a serious preview of tomorrow’s favorites should devote a LOT more words to van der poel, van aert, girmay, etc.OCexile06-07-2025
- Were they ever really in the fight for yellow??slappers6605-07-2025
- thanks for the great comment! and when you’re ready to sling some mud at cippoloni let me know, we can team up. i might be tempted to add gianni moscon to that list, but speaking hatefully about someone who engages in hate speech feels… unenlightened.OCexile05-07-2025
- alpecin was MONSTROUS! i’m really curious, friends who watched it… do you think van der poel KNEW he was tearing a multi-team sprint train to pieces, or has he just showed up so strong that he had no idea he’d dropped jonas, kaden and jasper? either way, the fact that he could move up and pull lead AGAIN is just NUTS. kaden’s pull was brief after that but crucial then jasper did his job. wow.OCexile05-07-2025
- Too much of 'I'd f****** go with myself'
Llywelynglyndwr05-07-2025 - I don't understand why he would be arrogant, since he was 18-19 y.o (when his talent caught my attention) he was always fresh, nice, a little "clown" as his family said. HE didn't change, the others changed because he wins a lot (envy, hate). I don't accept that.
maria2024202405-07-2025 - For Ineos, even their dreams tend to be unrealistic nowadaysabstractengineer05-07-2025
- That's fair comment. From what his family have said about Pog clowning around to lighten the mood whenever things got tense at home when he was a kid, I see his efforts now in that light. The press who seem to have 'arrogant' as a must-have adjective for Pogacar in their style sheet seem a bit short of empathy.Hill3305-07-2025
Dan is a thoughtful and knowledgeable guy, but I'm not sure he's on target there. He does not likely know anything about what has happened at Bora, so it seems premature to be drawing larger conclusions about this situation or what it says about cycling as a whole. Maybe Cian is just a petulant young man who has no regard for honoring contracts, or, as we have heard rumors, maybe he was mistreated and is right to demand to be let out. Until we know more about that, there isn't much Dan or anyone else can say that isn't speculation.
He is wrong. Caleb Ewan was told to get lost by his team. A lot of riders that are leaving the team don't get major races to participate in. So Cian can move as long he pays the termination fee. He was already getting discriminated against. If he has evidence, Its against the EU laws. That's why they had the Bosman ruling
Riders are going to find one day that nobody wants to sign anything other than a one year contract if they all expect to break them at will.