Quick-Step will look for further success next season as Soudal-Quick-Step. Trends spoke to Soudal’s Head of Sports Sponsorship Marko Heijl about, among other things, world champion Remco Evenepoel.
Soudal joined Patrick Lefevere’s squad before Remco Evenepoel won the Tour of Spain and became world champion. Is his contract still negotiable?
Marko Heijl: “This contract remains unchanged. Remco sealed his commitment to the team until 2026 while he was still physically and mentally affected after his crash at the Giro di Lombardia in 2019. Who could say at the time, for sure, that he would be back? There are many examples of runners who never regained their top level after a bad crash. Lefevere took the risk. Look Chris Froom, a four-time Tour winner. He still makes $5 million a year at Israel-Premier Tech, which he was worth before his steep decline in 2019. But he’s done virtually nothing since. »
We’ve heard rumors in recent months that the mighty British cycling team, Ineos Grenadiers, are keen to snap up Evenepoel. Is the contract with Lefevere, and therefore with Soudal, infallible?
heijl: “I can’t talk about contracts. There is a contract that Evenepoel stays with us for five years, but does this contract stop him? Everything is for sale. There is a price for everything, including Remco. Even if it is a jewel and an exceptional talent. In football it is good practice to negotiate contracts, even twice a year. But in cycling this is not done. The international cycling federation, the UCI, is not waiting for this negotiation to begin, and certainly neither Patrick Lefevere This is not the culture of cycling If Remco’s contract is taken over, it causes image damage, both for cycling and for the team that would do so.
If Evenepoel gives in to greed, will this be the end of the marriage between Soudal and the Lefevere team?
heijl: “We assume that will not be the case. But I want to clarify that every few years a new one wonderful boy emerges in cycling. Egan Bernal he would go on to win the Tour five times and still has only one win to his credit. Then it was Tadej Pogacar who would have easily won five consecutive Grandes Boucles, but crashed last year Jonas Vingevaard. Who knows what the next generation will bring, Cian Uijtdebroeks And the others ? Sport is the most uncertain sector in the world. And that means positively. The greatness of sport lies precisely in this uncertain outcome. If we had known in advance that Argentina would be world soccer champions, I would not have watched the matches. We don’t know who will win the Tour next year or who the tenors of the group will be in four years. Not even Ineos knew it, because that team thought Bernal would tear everything apart for years.”
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