How the Tour of Spain simultaneously made Uijtdebroeks realize what he did and did not want

It looks like Cian Uijtdebroeks will be racing in the colors of Visma | Lease a Bike next year. However, the team of Richard Plugge and BORA-hansgrohe will first have to battle it out, after a bizarre series of contradictory reports about Uijtdebroeks' transfer to the Dutch WorldTour team emerged on Saturday. IDLProCycling.com walks you through the first pro years of the 20-year-old stage racer and investigates whether the collaboration between Uijtdebroeks and Jumbo-Visma was secretly just a matter of time.

Let's start off on Saturday evening. After Visma | Lease a Bike proudly announced the arrival of top talent Cian Uijtdebroeks, a message from his current employer BORA-hansgrohe quickly followed. The team refuted the transfer and stated that the Belgian is still under contract for 2024. Then, Cian's management released a press statement. "The agreement between Cian Uijtdebroeks and BORA-hansgrohe was terminated on December 1, 2023. Legal proceedings have already been initiated by Cian, and the UCI is aware of the termination of the agreement," according to management agency A&J All Sports.

Uijtdebroeks and BORA misaligned during Vuelta debut

We're now waiting for the issue to be settled, but it is no secret that Uijtdebroeks wanted to leave BORA-hansgrohe. The rider's first season at BORA started off well with solid placements in various smaller stage races and the overall victory in the Tour de l'Avenir. It seemed like a solid foundation for 2023, where Uijtdebroeks would test himself in the WorldTour stage races and also compete in the Vuelta a España. The young cyclist was keeping up with the high standards in a most admirable way, securing impressive and successive top ten finishes in the Tour of Catalonia, the Tour de Romandie and the Tour of Switzerland.

Everything was going swell, but the Tour of Spain was about to change that. BORA put forth Uijtdebroeks and Aleksandr Vlasov as their two top contenders for the general classification. Although Vlasov initially had the upper hand over his young teammate, the Belgian performed strongly in the second week, including a fine fifth place on the Tourmalet. In the third week, Uijtdebroeks single-handedly turned the tables by putting Vlasov behind him by a minute and a half on the merciless Angliru.

This rubbed Vlasov the wrong way, or at least that is how Uijtdebroeks experienced the situation. In the finale of the eighteenth stage, the Russian launched an attack together with teammate Nico Denz, while Uijtdebroeks was ahead of him in the standings. "I just think we should try to secure my seventh place today. I also thought what happened in the previous stage was a bit... ridiculous, let's say. I feel there is a certain tension - he seems set on finishing ahead of me, while it actually doesn't matter much to me. Do I dare put my foot down? I do express my opinion sometimes, yes, but this is also part of cycling. It's the same in Formula 1...", he expressed his annoyance at his teammate's action.

On the penultimate day, Uijtdebroeks eventually lost his seventh place to Vlasov during an explosive mountain stage. This brought a somewhat sour end to what was an otherwise very impressive grand tour debut. "They also wanted to aim for a classification with me, but they didn't really believe in it," the Flemish rider took a jab at his employer. "The team strategy was more that Aleksandr would be the man. I tried to do my best alongside him to stay at the front. I am very happy that I stayed in the top ten."

Uijtdebroeks' annoyance grows after mediocre time trial

The relationship between Uijtdebroeks and BORA-hansgrohe did not improve from there. The next point of contention was the time trial equipment, which is of essential importance for a stage racer in today's era. At the end of the season, Uijtdebroeks participated in the Chrono des Nations. Over a distance of 45 kilometers, he lost 3.54 minutes to Remco Evenepoel, a compatriot whom Uijtdebroeks will likely encounter again often in the future. With such a deficit in a time trial of a grand tour, you are completely out of contention as a classification rider.

Uijtdebroeks mainly attributed the large difference to the team's equipment. "After ten kilometers, my shifter came loose and I had to change bikes right away. And that other bike was not working as it should at all. No matter how hard you ride, that's no fun. I came here to learn. It would be nice if my bikes were in order," he said, starting off on a very critical note, in an interview with Belgian outlet Het Nieuwsblad. "Especially in terms of aerodynamics and the construction of the bike itself, there is still a lot of room for improvement. I have the power. Even here, with my 65 kilograms, I average almost 400 watts over the course of an hour. But the entire support framework needs to be fine-tuned. That's where we're just losing a lot right now."

With the rider's growing criticism of the team, the working relationship between Cian and BORA-hansgrohe was showing not just cracks, but huge fissures. Despite an ongoing contract, rumors of a transfer grew. INEOS Grenadiers was often mentioned, but so was Jumbo-Visma. The latter team's interest surely grew when Primoz Roglic made the switch to Uijtdebroeks' team. The arrival of the Slovenian also limited the Belgian's freedom to pursue his own chances. All the more reason for him to seek greener pastures.

Jumbo-Visma puts out feelers and quickly reaches agreement

From there, things moved quickly, especially when Plugge openly expressed his interest in Uijtdebroeks in an early December interview with Het Laatste Nieuws. "We are indeed interested in Cian. We were interested even when he was still a junior. We already spoke to him then." Back then, Jumbo-Visma lost the intense battle among all the top teams for Uijtdebroeks' signature to BORA-hansgrohe. The then junior based his choice on the collaboration with German coach Dan Lorang.

However, a few years later, the situation is completely different. Over the course of the last two years, Jumbo-Visma has grown into the absolute top team in stage races. They won the Tour de France twice in a row with Jonas Vingegaard. And they commanded great respect by occupying the entire final podium in the previous Vuelta a España. A feat that Uijtdebroeks admired from the front row. Also, time-trialing has become a focal point under the careful guidance of time trial guru Mathieu Heijboer. This must have opened Uijtdebroeks' eyes: to win a grand tourVisma | Lease a Bike is the place to be at the moment.