Pro-cycling thread

He's out of contract for next year, officially.

However, Ineos/Sky tend to ensure they keep the riders they want to keep by agreeing contracts early and announcing them late. I'd be very surprised if there isn't a signed contract in place for the next few years already.

On the bonus side, I'm no expert in this, but a lot of big name riders seem to be on a bonus scheme that is written into their contracts, so if you win the Giro you get a £250k bonus and so on. I don't know if TGH has such clauses in his contract, but I'd be surprised if he did. Generally what happens when a up and coming rider does far better than expected is one of two things;

1. The team want to keep the rising star so take the initiative in agreeing a new and improved contract to reward them properly.
   
2. They keep them on their existing contract and a stand off occurs where the up and coming star just goes through the motions whilst their agent finds a new team who are willing to pay them what they are now worth. Richie Porte back in his Saxo Bank days is a case in point for this - he wore the pink jersey and finished 7th in the Giro in his neo-pro year, but was kept on the same contract. He did virtually nothing the following year, as he was on a two year deal, then moved to Sky on a contract that reflected his true worth.