The winter transfer season was dominated by Sian Uitsdebroeks, but Visma Ries a Bike has been accused of trying to sign another under-contracted player, this time Andreas Krohn of Lot Dostony.

The Dutch team ended up signing him to a contract with Uitdebloks after paying a fee to his former team, Beulah Hansgrohe, to get rid of his contract a year early. In contrast to other sports such as soccer, such transfers are rare in cycling, where athletes usually only switch teams when their contracts expire.

Lotto-Dostony CEO Stéphane Heulot claims that Visma Lease-a-Bike has tried to add Cron to the team again this offseason; the 25-year-old Dane won the second stage of the Vuelta a España last season and was fourth in the Amstel Gold Race in April. He finished in second place and had his best season as a professional.

"This process can lead to a loss of interest in racing," Hui Lo told RTBF of the practice of riders breaking their contracts to join one of the peloton's biggest teams. It's complicated to keep up with a team with a bigger budget and three times the firepower of ours."

"What concerns me is that the host team's coach [Richard Plug] is the president of the team association, the AIGCP. If you have a president who doesn't follow the rules, it's hard to trust him. They tried to do the same thing here with Andreas Krohn. It is annoying and goes against the spirit of serving cycling."

RTBF contacted Vismaris a Bike in response to the complaint. According to the Dutch team, Kron claims that there is a clause in his contract allowing him to leave, but this does not appear to be the case.

"Kron contacted us and claimed that there is a clause in his contract that allows him to move to a World Tour team. However, that turned out not to be the case (at least his team disputed it), so we pulled out," Visma-Lease a Bike said.

Riders breaking their contracts and moving elsewhere is not a new idea in cycling, and WorldTour teams have "bought" talented young riders from smaller teams in the past. Egan Bernal and Ivan Sosa moved from Androni to Ineos Grenadiers this way.

Wout Van Art, who transferred from Verandas Vilhems to Visma, is fighting a legal battle to avoid paying compensation.

Hoylow lamented the state of cycling's modern transfer market, accusing agents of trying to make money off riders and calling the Wit de Brooks saga "painful and very bad for cycling."

"That didn't happen a few years ago," he said. 'More and more agents are coming into our business. Some are trying to make money off the backs of riders without contributing to their careers.

"Cyan's case is alarming and very bad for cycling. If we don't honor our contracts, we will soon start sliding down a dangerous slope. We had a similar case this summer with Caleb Yuan, but it was different. He could have honored the contract if he wanted to, but both parties agreed to part ways."