Do Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe even need Remco Evenepoel?

It’s finally over, the most drawn out transfer saga in recent times is concluded. Remco Evenepoel’s time at Soudal Quick-Step, the team where he turned professional in 2019, is finished and he will ride for Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe from 2026 onwards. Despite consistent denials from all parties that a transfer was imminent, Evenepoel’s move to the German team has been the worst kept secret within the WorldTour for months. Whispers were abound that it was finally done and contracts were ready for much of the recent Tour de France.

But where now for Evenepoel? Where does this leave him after a difficult ending to the Tour? It was already clear on the eve of the race in Lille that something was amiss. The double Olympic champion is typically calm, collected and measured in his words, although he appeared spiky and on edge when he met the media before the team presentation, stating that he will “never crack under pressure”.

That same pressure will be amplified tenfold by signing for Red Bull and is only set to increase next year when the Tour arrives once more. At the time of Primož Roglič’s arrival at the German team, its then head sports director, Rolf Aldag, said that it had forced the group to recalibrate its goals completely. Evenepoel signing means that those same goals must be recalibrated to a stratospheric level; the stakes could never have been greater.

With his departure confirmed, the mood amongst the camp at Soudal Quick-Step will be one of sadness and regret, even if their outward messaging suggests a stoic, resilient atmosphere and a positive outlook towards the future. The team reshaped itself in order to pursue GC ambitions in all of cycling’s three Grand Tours – with Evenepoel at the forefront of that – although it appears they will now return to the Classics identity of old. An identity they must return to without their most prized possession.

Patrick Lefevere, and his successor, Jurgen Foré, fought with tooth and nail to keep their most prized asset at the team in recent years, but more and more has pointed to the fact that Evenepoel simply wanted out, and he felt that he could progress no further at Quick-Step. This isn't the first time the prospect of the Belgian leaving has been raised, with Ineos Grenadiers a notable previous suitor, but this is final.

Do Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe even need a rider of his standing? The team already possess one of the brightest talents amongst the men’s WorldTour: Florian Lipowitz. The young German proved his durability and underlined his credentials as a future GC leader with a hugely impressive ride to third overall at the Tour, winning the white jersey in the process. Lipowitz has not yet made public comment regarding the arrival of his new teammate, although he could now be completely sidelined by the move for a rider just one year his senior.

Lipowitz was, until this week, Red Bull's golden boy, but might already have been usurped. The young German, at a German team, is seemingly a better climber and a better GC option right now than Evenepoel is, based on results this year. However, the team have gone and signed something shinier – a rider with a golden helmet.

The presence of Roglič will also be interesting, with the Slovenian seemingly not caring at the recent Tour, but with one more year on his contract. There will be a tricky balancing act of egos between three riders who are not at too dissimilar levels when it comes to GC racing.

But if the team gels successfully, could the move work? Evenepoel is heading to a team that is set up to perform much deeper in the high mountains, with help from Jai Hindley, Aleksandr Vlasov, Giulio Pellizzari and Dani Martínez. He will also stay aboard Specialized bikes, a brand he has a personal connection to, and be surrounded by staff he knows and trusts with former Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout and Quick-Step DS Klaas Lodewyck expected to move with him.

Evenepoel could now find that all of this change could be a fast track closing the gap between himself and Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar - but that gap is more than just a bike length. Evenepoel now has increased financial clout behind him, as well as a greater calibre of riders to call upon as teammates, but Pogačar has been unstoppable yet again this calendar year. Retirement is likely to be the only thing that ends his insurmountable control of the top level of the sport.

Nevertheless, Evenepoel knows what it takes to perform and win big on the grandest of stages: his two Olympic golds stand as testament to that. He has long been seen as the only rider capable of truly going head to head with the Tour’s two best riders and standing a chance of coming out on top. With the right support, and some more fine tuning, this move could be exactly what the Belgian needs. Just don't ask Florian Lipowitz what he thinks.