Happy New Year, or Bonne Anne as they say at the UCI HQ in Aigle, Switzerland*. A new year has rung in but dont worry if you missed the party last night although its safe to say a share of the peloton will have sunk some beers after the finish of races in Nanning, Utsunomiya and Bassano del Grappa yesterday.Officially the 2025 professional road cycling season starts today. Its anecdotal for the most part but theres one big fix to be done.Thats the UCI rule in question, as you can see the new season starts the day after the last World Tour race has happened. With the Tour of Guangxi finishing yesterday that makes today the start of the 2025 season.Its mainly a trivial admin issue but any points earned in races for the remainder of 2024 like the upcoming Tour du Faso, the Vuelta Ciclista a Ecuador and so on count to the 2025 score even if they happen in 2024.But the one big issue where it counts, and the purpose of this blog post, is to point that if the UCI rules in black and white that the 2025 season starts today then the UCI and the pro teams really should get around to making pro contracts run across a similar period. For example 1 November-30 October rather than per calendar year.Pro riders will still be salaried by their old team for the next two months. Ben OConnor has has already attended a Greenedge team gathering and after a well-deserved rest hell be training hard again soon in anticipation of his first races with his new squad. Yet hes still legally a Decathlon-Ag2r La Mondiale rider and going to be paid the French team until the end of December. Likewise for any other rider changing teams, theyre now all focussed on delivering with their new teams but contractually and in terms of wages they belong to the old squad.This is often visible moment when riders gather for training camps. When Simon Yates goes to Calpe for the Visma-LAB camp this December hell be obliged to wear his Jayco kit and ride his Giant bike; ditto Lenny Martinez who has to don Groupama-FDJ kit and ride his Wilier around the Costa Blanca despite showing up for work chez Bahrain. Its here that things get a little absurd, imagine another workplace where youre expected to show up, but have to wear the clothing of your previous employer?More importantly the bike matters as a rider needs to find their new position, get used to any changes in components and so on but officially theyre not supposed to use the new machine until January. You might remember Sergio Higuita being fired by EF because he was filmed riding his Bora Specialized before 1 January.The bike example matters and the clothing is largely cosmetic but obviously visible so we see the absurdity. However surely the real oddity is riders are going to become de facto employees of their 2025 teams in the coming weeks, theyre taking part in the workplace of their new employer but still technically hired by another. Itd just make more sense to make them de jure employees too. Or without the Latin jargon if theyre working for their new team already itd be sensible if they were legally employed by them too.The fix to this is have contracts run from November to October, still 12 months. Easier said than done of course. Plenty of riders hold contracts today are valid until the 31 December in some future year and theyd be hard to amend. But the UCI and teams could agree to reform this so that future contracts have a 30 October expiry.Remember the things like the minimum wage are part of the Joint Agreements, a set of terms and conditions agreed between the AIGCP group of teams and the CPA rider union, mediated by the UCI. Indeed its Article 6 that stipulates:Art. 6 Contract shall be for a specified period ending on 31 DecemberThis could be rewritten. Clearly the change couldnt come by making anyone worse off, by saying to someone with a contract to December that theyll have to forgo two months, itd only be for new contracts.ConclusionIts a small fix for pro cycling. It wont increase TV revenues, make the Tour de France more thrilling nor safer but it can help in smaller ways and above all its reasonably achievable. Its not a new call either, this blogs raised it before and others have too. With riders effectively swapping teams now its just obvious to align contracts too.Lastly this blog doesnt do cyclo-cross but that branch of the sport looks even odder when teams change kit, branding and sometimes name mid-season because contracts are also January-December. If this could be fixed first, perhaps road cycling could copy soon after? Either way, happy new year.* the Google Streetview image is from the village of Bonne Anne, Happy New Year in French. Its the slopes of the climb to Torgon, used by the Tour de Romandie with recent winners like Primo Rogli and Demi Vollering. Follow the long straight road on the right and the white object in the woodland. is UCI HQ.The post Happy New Year first appeared on The Inner Ring.