Romain Bardet has said "I haven’t shared the doubts of the riders who left, so it’s not easy for me to understand" after various riders have broken contracts with Team DSM.
A recent piece by Sporza was posted hours before the team's 2022 presentation, it included unnamed riders saying the way the team was run was like a "Soviet regime" with another adding they were "treated like little children".
Bardet, however, has flourished at DSM making his Giro d'Italia debut where he finished seventh overall as well as taking a stage at the Vuelta a España and the Vuelta a Burgos.
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In an interview with CyclingNews, Bardet said that riders breaking contract and leaving has not impacted on morale in the team, thanks to its transparency.
"It’s always very honest: you know that you have to give the best of yourself, because it’s the least you can do in such a high-level environment. And the team has always thought in terms of what’s best for the whole group.
"Of course, sometimes riders have different ambitions, but no departure has affected the morale of the riders here, because we have confidence in the work of the staff and the experts around the team on a daily basis.
"It’s not a disruption. It’s honest and courageous on the part of the team to allow someone to follow his own path and leave rather than have a conflict. From my point of view, it hasn’t affected us. I haven’t shared the doubts of the riders who left, so it’s not easy for me to understand."
Over the last few years multiple high-profile riders have broken their contract with the team, with Marcel Kittel, Michael Matthews, Tom Dumoulin, Marc Hirschi, Warren Barguil and most recently Tiesj Benoot all leaving early.
Former rider Ilan Van Wilder took legal action against the team as he wanted to leave. He has now joined Deceuninck - Quick-Step after breaking his three-year contract with DSM.
Two anonymous riders told Sporza: "Woe to you if you had trained a little bit differently for a day. You immediately got on the phone with an angry staff member and you had to justify yourself.”
"They had a protocol for everything. It was really extreme. And every year new rules were added. Rules that get on riders' nerves.
"We felt that we had to listen to Mr. and Mrs. the teacher all the time. We were treated like little children. If you didn't do something right, you had to stand in the corner, as it were.
"Some riders may need that approach. But especially the older riders do not need many superfluous rules that were then unnecessarily complex."
The team is seeing 10 riders leave at the end of this season with just two retiring in Nicolas Roche and potentially 24-year-old Martin Salmon.
The others leaving are the formally mentioned Benoot and Van Wilder as well as Jai Hindley to Bora-Hansgrohe, Michael Storer to Groupama-FDJ, Jasha Sütterlin to Bahrain Victorious, Max Kanter to Movistar, Felix Gall to Ag2r-Citroën and Chad Haga to Rally Cycling.
John Degenkolb, Jonas Hvideberg, Sam Welsford and Frederick Rodenberg Madsen and a couple of DSM development riders are down to join the team for 2022.
