Tour de France 2012

How do contracts in cycling work: he's signed a four year one apparently. If he wants to move to another team does he/they have to buy him out of it? Or will he have a get out clause? Or is it simply a question of resigning?

It is very rare for anyone to break a contract, the only example I can think of is when Sky bought Wiggins out of his Garmin contract and Slipstream, the management company behind Garmin, were compensated generously.

The only way I could see Froome leaving is if one of the teams backed by a wealthy benefactor, so essentially BMC or Quick Step now following Team Leopard's documented problems, desperately wanted him. BMC would seem to have a Tour GC replacement for Evans already signed up in Van Garderen, which leaves Quick Step, who do not have a good track record of signing GC riders.