A new rule that will see development teams compensated when their riders sign contracts with WorldTour teams is being viewed as more of a symbolic move of goodwill than anything else, according to some Continental team managers.
The UCI recently announced the rule—which will come into effect on June 1—wherein, upon a rider’s signing to a WorldTour team, development teams will be awarded €2,000 for each year a rider raced for them, paid out by the WorldTour team. Seasons eligible for payout start with a rider’s 15th birthday and will not exceed eight years, giving the deal a payout ceiling of €16,000. For now, this deal only applies to male riders.
Though, according to a story published in Cycling Weekly, given the small sum, some managers of developmental teams see the deal as little more than a symbolic gesture.
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“I do appreciate that the UCI is acknowledging it and I do appreciate that the UCI is making an effort towards it for certain teams,” general manager of U.S.-based Continental team Hagens-Berman Axeon Axel Merckx told Cycling Weekly. “In the grand scheme of things, is it going to make a huge difference? No. €2,000 is not that much, because €2,000 is not going to pay the cost of developing a rider over a year.”
Hagens-Berman Axeon regularly sends riders to the WorldTour stage, producing some of the biggest young names in cycling today. Riders like Lawson Craddock, Joe Dombrowski, Jasper Stuyven, and Tao Geoghegan Hart all rode for Merckx at one point. Most recently, Hagens-Berman Axeon sent Leo Hayter to Ineos Grenadiers for the 2023 campaign.
According to Merckx, a payout equaling a percentage of a rider’s salary would be more in line with the value developmental teams are producing for WorldTour teams.
“So, let’s just say, 5% or 10% on the first contract (paid by the WorldTour team),” Merckx told Cycling Weekly.
Michael Venutolo-Mantovani is a writer and musician based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He loves road and track cycling, likes gravel riding, and can often be found trying to avoid crashing his mountain bike.
