CCC team riders have accepted a 50% pay cut to allow the men's WorldTour team to continue racing through the 2020 season, but the team's long-term future is in question following the CCC's decision to end its sponsorship at the end of this year.

In early April, the team, run by Jim Ochowicz, announced that it would suspend most of its support staff and "significantly reduce" player salaries, citing the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the team's title sponsor.

In recent weeks, the players and their agents have negotiated with Ochowicz and offered to accept a significant cut in salaries for 2020 in the hopes that the team would survive. However, according to reports in Het Nieuwsblad and La Gazzetta dello Sport, CCC will end its title sponsorship this year.

It is unclear whether this decision will also affect the women's CCC-Liv team; according to Wielerflits.nl, the women's team has its own contract with the sponsor and has fulfilled its obligations up to this year. the CCC team declined to comment but will contact them as soon as possible He stated that the team will be in touch with them as soon as possible.

Big names on the men's roster include Greg Van Avermaat, Matteo Trentin, Ilnur Zakarin, and Fausto Masnada. Many players are under contract through 2021 and will need to see if their teams will survive before considering a move to another team, while others will have to find contracts in a tight transfer market where player values have plummeted as many teams are in financial trouble.

Bike sponsor Giant will reportedly continue to support the team, but Ochowicz and his Continuum Sports Management company have been unable to find a replacement for the Poland-based shoe retailer if the team is to participate in the 2021 World Tour. faces a race against time to find a replacement.

The riders expect the team to pay their full March salaries, and a 50% cut would affect their contracts for the remainder of 2020; under UCI rules, a pay cut would not allow riders to fall below the UCI minimum wage of €38,000.

Although the riders must be paid for the month of April, the pay cut will allow the teams to race on the UCI's recently announced new August-November calendar for the remainder of 2020. If the CCC pays the reduced salaries, the riders will not initiate the process of invoking the bank guarantee that covers three months of their registered salaries with the UCI.

The CCC team has been hit hard by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and race suspensions since March, with various reports in the Polish press detailing the financial woes of the footwear company. Stores have closed, CCC's stock price and earnings have plummeted, and billionaire owner Dariusz Mirek has cut costs in response.

According to Bankier.pl (opens in new tab), the CCC group recently reached agreements with several banks to secure financing for the next 12 months. In order to restructure its second-quarter spending, it may be forced to cancel all sports sponsorships.

The group expects to need cash to spend on store closures in Germany, settlements with landlords of stores already closed in Central Europe, and "closure of activities related to sports sponsorships contracted for 2020-2021," the report notes

The report notes.

"We have had to temporarily shut down all but a handful of staff and significantly cut riders' salaries to ensure we have the budget to race when the season resumes," manager Jim Ochowicz said earlier this month.

"As soon as we are able to resume racing, we hope to have as many of our support staff back and in a position to revisit our budget."

The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic is just beginning to spill over into cycling. World Tour racing has been suspended until at least August, and the Astana, Lotto Soudal, Bahrain McLaren, and Mitchelton Scott teams have cut or postponed riders' salaries.

UCI President David Lapartiento has expressed concern about the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on some professional cycling teams. In a report published Monday in De Telegraaf (opens in new tab), Lapartiento said he hopes all teams will survive to the end of the season.

"We know that three, four, or five teams have more problems than others," he said. We hope all teams survive to the end of the season."