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Riders and staff at Soudal Quick-Step are still suffering the fallout of the team’s aborted blockbuster mega-merger with Jumbo-Visma.
Soudal Quick-Step team chairman Bessel Kok spoke to Het Laatste Nieuws of a rancor that’s brewed in the “Wolf Pack” in was has been a tumultuous past month for the team.
“There is a lot of damage and little result,” Kok told HLN of the aborted fusion with Jumbo-Visma.
“Those guys on the bike and the staff have lived in total uncertainty for a number of weeks. I’m not advocating a socialist approach, but it all happened over their heads and no one said anything.”
Scores of Quick-Step riders and staffers were plunged into uncertainty through the ongoing reports of a merger-turn-takeover by their Dutch rivals.
The project has since been shelved, but Kok suggested this weekend that discontent has spread through the Belgian squad.
“That has caused a lot of unrest and a movement within the team,” Kok said. “They felt like they were being traded. Maybe in some strange way they will come out stronger.”
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Shivers swept through Soudal Quick-Step when it appeared scores of employees would be put out of work by a fusion with Jumbo-Visma.
Team talisman Remco Evenepoel was being courted by both Jumbo-Visma and Ineos Grenadiers, but only a few of his teammates were likely to be plucked from the Quick-Step roster and dropped into the “Soudal-Visma” superteam.
For now at least, Evenepoel has committed to his ongoing contract with Soudal Quick-Step.
Meanwhile, his teammates ended the season on a bright note with Ilan van Wilder and Andrea Bagioli scoring defiant wins in the Italian classics.
“Has Evenepoel changed his mind? It could be. Maybe he thought, ‘I actually have a good team, and where would I end up at Jumbo?’ Because there he would be just one of many. Perhaps the reaction of his teammates gave him food for thought,” Kok said.
“I hope everything settles down now.”
‘The team did take a hit’
Bagioli (left) is one of Quick-Step’s proven winners. He moves to Lidl Trek for 2024. (Photo: Getty)
Title partner Soudal pledged to stay with Soudal Quick-Step in the aftermath of “mega-merger” talks.
But Kok hinted at more choppy waters ahead as intra-team tension and longer-term financial worries hang over the team.
Furthermore, 11 marquee winners and helpers including Bagioli, Fabio Jakobsen, Tim Declerq, Michael Mørkøv, and Florian Sénéchal leave in 2024. Mikel Landa is the only experienced replacement confirmed for the new year. Young U.S. talent Luke Lamperti and a handful of promoted devo team riders will have to step up fast to fill the rest of the void.
“Soudal is staying, but the team did take a hit,” Kok said.
Kok also reminded HLN that Zdenek Bakala, the multi-millionaire that co-owns the squad with Patrick Lefevere, won’t be around forever.
The Czech investor has been steadily withdrawing from the team and his total exit would leave a significant gap in Quick-Step’s budget. Lefevere was also eyeing his own escape route from day-to-day management with a proposed board member role at “Soudal-Visma”.
“We’ll see whether this failure will reduce Bakala’s interest in the team,” ,” Kok said. “He told Patrick Lefevere that he wants to stay behind the team for another year, until 2025. That’s a new statement, a shortening of his commitment.”
Jumbo-Visma’s ‘future is assured’
Jumbo-Visma braces for new chapter without Jumbo as backer. (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
On the other side of the border, insiders at Jumbo-Visma seem certain the team is in a good place.
Jumbo-Visma sport director Merijn Zeeman suggested to Het Nieuwsblad a replacement is lined up for when long-time-backer Jumbo withdraws its interest from the Dutch super-team at the end of 2024.
“For the next 10 years we want to continue to make history and I can say that after the wonderful time with Jumbo we are stepping into a new chapter,” Zeeman said this weekend.
“It is now certain that we can continue to build this team in the coming years. Whether I say that the future is assured? Yes absolutely, although I can’t go into the details.”
Latest indications are that Pon Bicycles, which manufactures the Cervélo bikes ridden by the likes of Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss, and Wout van Aert, will be upping its stake in the Jumbo-Visma powerhouse in the near future. Talks of involvement by retail giant Amazon have gone quiet.
Change seems on the near-horizon for both Jumbo-Visma and Soudal Quick-Step.
But it won’t come via the chaos of a “mega-merger” that seemed so strong a possibility just two weeks ago.