>with a maximum of 30 riders possible on new team and 44 under contract at Lotto and Intermarche-Wanty, it means at least 14 riders will be forced to look elsewhere.
>Hansen says those teams did not actual inform those riders that they are to be cut.
>“I’ve had a call with the UCI and both teams together, and I’ve requested a clear list of the 30 riders who will remain, as well as the 14 who won’t. On that note, I do want to thank the UCI for this."
>according to Hansen, in some cases riders were reassured they were safe when this wasn’t actually the case. It has now fallen on him to break the bad news to the riders, which appears bizarre.
>“I asked the team’s rider representative to post a message in the team’s WhatsApp group, asking riders to contact me individually if they wanted to know where they stood,” he said. “I will not share the list publicly. What truly upset me is how many riders were uncertain about their future. Even more disappointing was having to tell some of them that they don’t have a contract for next year, especially when they had been told otherwise. In some cases, even their agents believed they were secure because that’s what the teams had communicated.”
>“The CPA should not be the one delivering this kind of news, and not in October. It was heartbreaking for me personally,” he said. “This experience makes it clear that we need to work closely with the UCI to create a stronger protocol, one that truly protects riders in these situations. At the moment, teams simply inform the UCI that their riders are ‘okay.’ But in reality, there are more than five riders without a contract for next season, and some only found out when I told them directly.”
imagine finding out from Hansen out of all people, that you're actually out of job.