Marc Sergeant, manager for Silence-Lotto - soon to be called Omega Pharma-Lotto, is on the lookout for a new general classification rider now that Cadel Evans has left the team.
"Last Monday Cadel traveled to Australia. Then his manager informed us that he planned on using the clause [to leave] in his contract," Sergeant told Sporza.
After Evans' dismal performance in the Tour de France his relationship with the Belgian team's management soured. The two sides met, and it seemed as if they were ready to look forward and get on with the job at hand - a Tour de France win.
"Just before Lombardy I went over his program for 2010 with him. We had already signed Daniel Moreno for reinforcement in the mountains," Sergeant explained.
With Evans' season of tough breaks, one could probably say his real "get out" clause came in the form of an impressive ride into rainbow jersey in Mendrisio, Switzerland.
Sergeant said he has no idea where the Australian plans on going, and that he is only thinking of building his team for next season. With the departure of Evans the Belgian team has opened up a huge chunk of its budget.
Sergeant added: "Whether this will cause us to have a difficult tour? That is possible, but it remains to be seen. We can now ride for Jurgen Van den Broeck, but we also have to look at who else is on the market. Contador? I read that 4 teams are interested [in signing him]. Why not 5 teams now?"
Contador is most likely to end up with Caisse d'Epargne if he leaves the Astana team. One might think Evans' best fit would be the new British Team Sky directed by compatriot Scott Sunderland, but there has been no mention of talks by either side. Sky has great interest in Bradley Wiggins as their GC man, but the British rider has a contract for 2010 with the Garmin-Slipstream team which could open the door for the current World Champion to hop on board.