Cian Uijtdebroeks’s autumn move to Movistar, his second mid-contract transfer in as many years, caught many by surprise. But the Belgian insists that the decision was easy to make – for one simple reason: Visma-Lease a Bike had reneged on their guarantees to him. “It was not possible to ride the Vuelta [a España in 2026 with Visma] so we said, ‘If after the injuries I’ve had you want to take it more chill, OK, but in 2026 there needs to be a Grand Tour. If you want to develop me as a Grand Tour rider, I need to go to Grand Tours, in my opinion’. They could not promise it to me.”

Uijtdebroeks, 22, is impatient for success. Winner of the 2022 Tour de l’Avenir – the U23 race that signposts future Grand Tour stars – the Belgian finished eighth in his maiden three-week race, the Vuelta a España, in 2023 aged 20. That prompted a controversial multimillion euro move from Bora-hansgrohe to Visma, with the Dutch team signalling their intention to make “Cian a future leader for our team.”

He started but failed to finish both the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta in 2024, and lower back pain hampered his 2025 season – although he did win the Tour de l’Ain and finish second at the Czech Tour in August. When Visma sat down with Uijtdebroeks in September to discuss their plans for the forthcoming season, he was disappointed to find out that his place in the team’s pecking order had slipped – and considerably so; it wasn’t that he wasn’t been offered a leadership role at a Grand Tour in 2026, but he wasn’t even guaranteed a ride.

This article was published in Rouleur in December 2025. To read the full article click here.