The Antwerp Court of Cassation has ruled in favour of Sniper Cycling BVBA, the parent organisation of Wout van Aert’s former team, in the long-running case of the Belgian rider rather controversially leaving Verandas Willems–Crelan during mid-season to join Visma–Lease a Bike.
It was confirmed yesterday that the three-time cyclocross world champion has now been ordered to pay €662,000 for “wrongly” terminating his contract with his former employer, reports Velo.
Despite being touted as a big move in the Belgian cycling scene, with Van Aert pipped to become the next superstar with Visma, Nick Nuyens, manager of the Sniper Cycling group, wasn’t too happy with his decision, and ended up filing a petition in the same year, which has finally reached a resolution after much back-and-forth between different courts.
According to Nuyens, the move was unlawful and demonstrated “a breach of trust” by the employee towards the employer. His lawyers initially argued for a €1.2 million compensation, however, the Labor Court in Antwerp tried to settle the case with a €662k amount, ruling in Nuyens’ favour.
He appealed the decision to the Court of Cassation seeking the full amount, however, the court has refused to order further compensation but held up the original amount, which Van Aert will now have to pay to his former team boss.
The official ruling read: “On 13 January 2025, the Court of Cassation ruled in the case of cyclist Wout van Aert against his former employer/cycling team. The Court of Cassation rejected the cassation appeals of both parties against the judgment of the Antwerp Labour Court of 9 June 2021.
“With that judgment, the Labour Court sentenced Wout van Aert to pay a severance payment of 662,041.31 euros because he had wrongly terminated his employment contract for urgent reasons.”
You might know Reflex Nopinz, the road racing team of which road.cc’s video lead Jamie is a part of, and they’ve knocked it out of the park with this post…
I thought being a Manchester United fan was hard. Turns out, being a cycling fan is also about to get hard — well, on the pockets.
Last night, it was announced that Warner Bros Discovery is set to shut down Eurosport, which had quickly become the home for all things pro cycling since 2023, and migrate cycling, along with snooker and tennis, to TNT Sports— as soon as 28 February.
The kicker is that those interested in just watching cycling will have to shell out the full premium price for the entire TNT Sports subscription package, which also includes Premier League, Champions League, Europa League, Premiership Rugby, MotoGP, UFC and boxing, meaning that the price goes from £6.99-a-month to an “extremely disappointing” £30.99-a-month.
This marks the latest in a series of steps that have left watching pro cycling in a sticky situation, first with Warner Bros shutting down GCN+ citing “changing media landscape”, and then the news that ITV will not broadcast Tour de France from 2026, as Warner Bros Discovery signed on exclusive rights until “at least 2030” on Eurosport, leaving free-to-air coverage of one of the world’s biggest sporting events in jeopardy.
The news hasn’t done much to win over fans who have already expressed disappointment at the state of things, with many road.cc readers reaching out and commenting on our social media posts claiming they are about to cancel their subscriptions — if they haven’t already.
Tony Weston wrote on Facebook: “Just cancelled my subscription. Can’t justify this kind of price hike when only interested in cycling,” while J-P Martins confirmed doing the same, adding: “In the past few years I've watched all three major tours, either live or in close catch-up, all the one-day classics, and a fair few cyclocross races.
“Reminds me of Test cricket, which I used to follow avidly when on free-to-air and haven’t seen since, or the Premiership, or international rugby. I love sports but a 10x price hike to £30.99-a-month — just no way does that fit my budget or discretionary spend plans.”
Dr Paul Johnson emailed road.cc saying: “In essence, if I want sports access I’ll have to move from the current cost of £6.99 a month to £30.99 a month, which is frankly beyond my means. Bearing in mind the apparent lack of free-to-air access for the tour de France from next year, this’ll be a further blow to anyone who is subscribing for cycling. I don’t want or watch the other sports, so it seems like an exploitation of current subscribers. Big sigh.”
Meanwhile, Yavor Mitev commented: “Another one of those great facepalm moments that ‘grow the sport’…”
What do you think about the pricing change and the future of watching pro cycling? Are you happy to subscribe to TNT Sports or are you planning to cancel your subscription — and if it’s the latter, how do you plan to watch cycling? As always, we are interested in your answers, so let us know in the comments!
While some of us might be struggling with finding a decent bike lane to ride on here in the UK, the Yanks are apparently getting two lanes — believe it or not — to segregate slower and faster riders…
A picture shared by Alex Attinson on social media showed the slightly confusing infrastructure from Prospect Park in New York, with a short dashed line and two cyclist symbols on either side of it — although with different arrows.
“It’s generally assumed to mean fast to the left, slow to the right, but it cracks me up,” Attinson wrote.
Trust me, I am as confused as you are, but if I had to guess, it’s probably more of an indication to riders about which side of the road to stay on depending on their speed, rather than two distinct lanes.
But of course, someone had to come in and make a Zwift joke, and it was Ben Finch who pounced: “They give you a speed boost if you hit them just right.”