Jumbo Visma's Wout Van Aert appeared before the Employment Court in Mechelen, near Antwerp, Belgium. Van Aert's case is being brought by his former Veranda's Villems Clerins team manager, Nick Nuyens, who is demanding €1.11 million in damages after Van Aert terminated his contract with the team.

Van Aert had signed a contract for the 2019 season with Sniper Cycling, the Nuyens-owned holding company that operates Veranda's Willems-Crelan, but with Dutch team Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij The contract was unilaterally terminated in September 2018 during merger negotiations.

Although Juan Art claimed he had no knowledge of the proposed merger, the merger went ahead without Juan Art and the Roompot-Charles team was formed in 2019. The Belgian had already signed a contract with Dutch WorldTour team Jumbo Visma for 2020, but he was able to start riding for Jumbo Visma a year early because he terminated his contract with Sniper Cycling.

In August 2018, VanArt explained that he only learned about the merger after the deal was signed.

"Today there was a press release saying that we merged with Room Pot Team. I was only told about it five minutes before the official announcement." [Enough is enough; it's hard to believe that employees are treated this way in the 21st century."

On Tuesday, according to nieuwsblad.be, the website of the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, van Art called the €1.11 million damages claim "a completely distorted amount."

"It would be very strange if they would make me pay it, but I have to wait for the verdict," said Van Aert, who won a stage in his debut Tour de France this year, but crashed in the individual time trial on stage 13 and is still recovering from his injuries

"I've got a lot of money.

"It was never about the money, it was always about my career first. By not accepting their contract offer, I put myself in a situation I didn't want to be in," he continued.

"I was assigned to a completely new team, one that I had never chosen.

"I didn't like it at all, but I wasn't listened to at all. What happened was that it led to a major breach of trust. There was no longer an option to talk it out and resolve it amicably," Van Art says.

The judge in the case will determine whether the 25-year-old's reasons for terminating his contract were legitimate, and a verdict is expected on November 26.