Soudal Quick-Step’s CEO Jurgen Foré has said that he will discuss Remco Evenepoel's highly-discussed future once the Tour de France is over, after reports once again emerged linking the double Olympic champion with a move away from the team.
Escape Collective reported after stage two of the race that Evenepoel is unhappy at Quick-Step and will inform his employers at the end of July that he wants to depart at the end of his season. He has a year left on the five-year contract he signed in 2021.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe are favourites to sign Evenepoel, and Cycling Weekly has been told by a source close to the 25-year-old that he spent time at the Red Bull training centre in Austria last autumn, and has since maintained contact with the German team.
HLN, meanwhile, reported that long-time admirers Ineos Grenadiers remain in the race to sign Evenepoel, if indeed he can come to an agreement with Quick-Step and leave one year before his contract expires.
Speaking to Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews after the finish of stage three – won by Evenepoel’s team-mate Tim Merlier – Foré didn’t deny reports of Evenepoel's possible exit, instead insisting that it was a matter to be discussed after the Tour has finished.
“We’re here in the Tour de France, there are times to talk about the future and when there is a time we will sit down and we will do that,” said Foré, who replaced Patrick Lefevere as the team’s manager at the start of this season.
“But right now we’re here to race, to try to win in the Tour de France. There’s nothing to say [just] because someone writes something. There’s nothing to mention, that’s the honest answer.”
Referencing the persistent rumours which have surfaced every summer since 2023, Foré continued. “It’s already been going on for a long time. I give one answer now and I’m not going to respond to it anymore because it is what it is.
“It will not affect anyone because we are used to it. Everybody is used to it. We know up front that this again could be the case – it is what it is. We focus on racing and everyone thinks that at the table: we’re here at the biggest race in the world to race and I don’t have anything else to say.”
Evenepoel has endured a difficult opening three stages of the race; he lost 39 seconds on the first day after crosswinds split the bunch; the same evening he took to social media to respond to a video that appeared to show him refusing to sign autographs; and on stage three, he crashed in the closing kilometres, but didn’t appear to suffer any injuries.
As if to compound his frustration, when he returned to his team’s bus after the third stage, the bus’s front door didn’t open and the side door twice closed on him before he finally boarded.
At the start of the race in Lille, Evenepoel was asked about the transfer speculation. “It’s the first time I’ve heard about it,” he smiled back, adding that the news reports were “a bit of a surprise.”
He added: “I think you probably start to know me a bit now and comments from outside and stressful situations do not have a big effect on me. I’m always pretty calm, whether it’s a positive or negative situation. I would never crack under pressure.”
