A number of big-name Belgian riders, including CCC Team's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Stijn Vandenbergh (168澳洲5最新开奖结果:AG2R La Mondiale) and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Julien Vermote (Cofidis), are still on the lookout for teams for the 2021 season, 🌳with time running out.

With NTT Pro Cycling 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:looking ever more likely to close at the end of the year, and CCC Team's WorldTour licence having been bought by Circus-Wanty Gobert – which means that the rider rosters of two teams are being 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:squeezed as far as possible into one – the 2020 season is going to spell the end of a number of professional riders' car🌄eers.

 highlighted what was just a handful of Belgian riders who fear that their livelihoods are in jeopardy, with even higher-profile names – such as 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:NTT's Victor Campenaerts and British sprinter Mark Cavendish (Bahrain McLar🌸en) – also still not yet having signed anywhere for 2021.

CCC Team's Guillaume Van Keirsbulck – once touted as 'the next Tom Boonen' – admitted𝓀 to the Belgian newspaper that he'd had some sleepless nights of late.

"My goal had always been to continue racing until I was 35 or 36,"𒀰 the 29-year-old said. "But the teams are full and are making budget ൲cuts.

"Maybe they'll wait for market prices to drop," he said. "If necessary, I'll wait until January to sign with some👍one &ndashꦛ; like Jan Bakelants did last year – because I can't think about what I'd do if it doesn't work out."

Thirty-six-year-old Stijn Vandenbergh has spent t✨he past four seasons with French WorldTour team AG2R La Mondiale, but has been told that his ꩲservices are no longer required.

"The interest that a few teams had shown in me has died down," he explained to Het Laatste Nieuws. "Nothing's moving anymore, and AG2R are full; the team made thatဣ clear a few months ago.

"Nowhere seems to have a lot of budget🅺 available," Vandenbergh continued, "so at first I thought, 'I'll stop.' But the corona crisis made me realise how great this job is, and how much I still enjoy cycling.

"Even if I carried on for only half a season: one Classics spring in which I could ride Paris-Roubaix – the race that suits me best – one more time..ꦐ. That would be great," he said. "I'll give it another two or three weeks, but if it doesn't work out, I won't sit in a corner, crying."

Cofidis riders Vermote and Claeys still looking

Cofidis rider Julien Vermote agreed that the market appears to have gone quiet. While some riders at NTT a♚nd CCC have found places for next seas🅰on, many have not, which makes it clear that there's an oversupply of riders, the 31-year-old Belgian said.

"It's not ideal to end up on the market in a year like this one," said Vermote, who's ridden in the servꦍice of riders like Cavendish at both QuickStep and Dimension Data [now NTT] during his career. "I'd be sorry to have to stop, as I still enjoy cycling – more than ever, even. I'm convinced that I still have something to offer, and that I could dꦑo my thing for any leader, whether they were a sprinter, Classics rider or climber.

"I'm trying to keep thinking positively, and am still hoping for some good news," he added. "And I'm not going to be picky. As long as I was still able to ride aꦡ nice r𝓡ace programme in 2021, that would be great."

Vermote's Cofidis teammate, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Dimitri Claeys, is yet another Belgian rider still looking for a team for next year, despite having finished sixth at this year's res♎cheduled Tour of Flanders.

"It doesn't look good," the 33-year-ol♋d admitted. "Every day that passes without news is one too many, and reduces the chance that I'll still be a professional next year.

"Before the October Classics, I already had the feeling that things were going to be difficult, and Cofidis informed me that they weren't keeping me on," said Claeys. "The team is prioritising strengthening th✱e squad arou♏nd [star climber] Guillaume Martin, and is looking for solutions for a better return from sprinters Elia Viviani and Christophe Laporte, who remain bel🦩ow expectations.

"We're already in November," he said. "I fear it's to൲o🔯 late, and that would be a shame because I'm not done with this yet."

Het Laatste Nieuws also pointed out that 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lotto Soudal's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Sander Armée is perhaps in a slightl𝓀y better posi༺tion than some of his compatriots in that he remains hopeful that his team will still offer him a contract extension.

"Normally, you get certainty in July and August, and you can start making plenty of plans," the 34-♈year-old said. "But COVID-19 has inevitably impacted the transfer market. I just have to deal with the circumstances – and exercise patience, without setting a deadline.

"Lotto-Soudal have certainly not given me a negative signal," Armée continued. "The message until now has always been that there is still room for me, but that I had to wait a while. I've been riding for them now for seven years, so they know my worth. This year, I won a stage at the T🍎our Poitou-Charentes, and there was also my stage victory at the Vuelta a España [in 2017]. But, above all, I still feel very good physically, and I'ꦬm still super motivated."