Patrick Lefevere weighs in on Cian Uijtdebroeks chaos: "Very often it is the managers who try to screw each other over"

Patrick Lefevere has not been silent when it comes to the Cian Uijtdebroeks situation, even though Soudal - Quick-Step is not involved. He thinks changing cycling's transfer model is the most likely solution, and that this situation mostly comes from team managers trying to 'screw each other over'.

“Very often it is the managers who try to screw each other over and recommend riders to other teams and then talk down to them until they take action," Lefevere said in a recent interview. "There are a few specialists there. Although I maintain that Ralph Denk is not always correct. What surprises me is that everything was handled neatly with Roglic and now not with Uijtdebroeks, but of course I don't know the details and so I'm not going to venture any statements about why.”

A lot in fact is not known at this point in time, and everyday new details emerge. Right now it's being argued that there is a possibility that Uijtdebroeks' teammates were not too fond of the Belgian and even created a separate chat group during the Vuelta a España to talk about him. Lefevere himself recalled a story of how Ralph Denk (BORA - hansgrohe manager) went behind Lefevere's back in 2021 to try and sign Remco Evenepoel. He takes this into his personal opinion and believes that it is a feud between team managers - something which is quite possible, taking into consideration for example how quickly and aggressively Cofidis manager Cédric Vasseur reacted to the news. It is being accessed what role Uijtdebroeks himself had in the transfer, although it appears evident that he was keen to leave the team as soon as possible.

“This cannot become a habit, because then we will have a problem," the experienced manager of the Belgian team continued, then arguing that football-like transfer system could help avoid these situations. "Then it becomes impossible to present sponsors with a five-year project. If riders leave early, they leave you exposed. A transfer system like in football would give us the opportunity to build up a war chest. Everyone equal before the law. We track down young men and don't let them drive them crazy. Then I think we could earn something from that if another team wants to take them away. That all good riders end up with the teams with the largest budgets? That is already the case.”