It would be a real shame to see them go. They have done such an amazing job in the development of riders and made huge improvements in the methodology of technical and biophysical cycling. In my opinion, it's a little bit of a shame that they were never able to keep their successfull riders or get financial compensation for them. Considering they have connections to Eindhoven, I'd be wondering if they wouldn't be able to find sponsors.

@Lion The riders leaving thing is weird because at various times they seem to have essentially 'supported' it and other times they act like they can't believe the guy is leaving yet still let them go. The total number of riders who have left the Sunweb/DSM/Picnic/whatever organization early is about 20 in just the last 10 years.

There has to be some kind of internal blockage within the team that causes this situation to keep happening over and over again.

@Eliza There are definitely problems within the management. I do understand riders leaving because they don't like this very scientific approach (probably shouldn't sign the contract in the first place, but that's another topic) or get higher offers. What I don't understand is why they aren't more open to riders leaving with financial compensation from the new team and writing that into the contract. In reality, they are more of a development team with WT status than an usual team.

Lorena Wiebes was probably the most prominent example. They had her under contract for 2024 but had an exception for her to be allowed to leave early!?!?

Yes by default after the warning shot but who knows. They have so many total riders associated with the organization that it would be crazy to see it collapse completely.