'We have faith in Patrick Lefevere' says Soudal Quick-Step sports director

Since Patrick Lefevere sent an internal – and later leaked – memo to the Soudal Quick-Step riders and staff, the management at the top of the team has been virtually silent on the future of the squad.

By all accounts, Lefevere's team are on course for a merger with Jumbo-Visma for 2024 and, although the indications are that the deal will be more of a takeover than an equal partnership, the lack of clarity and transparency has created a vacuum in which speculation and rumour have run rife.

Some of that speculation has been fair and warranted, with tabs being kept on major riders who are now on the market, such as Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel - should the Soudal Quick-Step paying agent cease to exist. But in the middle of this ongoing saga are dozens of riders and staff, all unaware of where their future lies.

GCN has learned from a rival boss that several agents representing Soudal Quick-Step riders have been in contact looking for a ride.

Read more:

• Primož Roglič on the transfer market
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On October 9, Soudal Quick-Step plan to gather all of their contracted riders and staff for a team meeting in Antwerp at the Soudal headquarters. It’s unlikely that the true nature of the deal/merger/takeover will be kept under such a guarded stance by then, but flights have been booked, and within the Soudal Quick-Step camp it's business as usual as far as some staffers are concerned.

"I know as much as you, you might know more. So I don’t know. It’s a question mark I guess," sports director Geert van Bondt told GCN from his cell phone in Belgium.

"There has been no communication since the letter and Patrick has just asked us to have faith in him. We just have to wait and that’s all I can say right now. I have faith in Patrick. He always said to me that the team was everything to him and that’s also what he said in the email. It’s 80 people and I think that’s his priority, to see that everyone is fine and that next year they all have a job, I think.

"For the moment I’ve not talked to any riders. We just have to wait and it will develop. Everyone has the same questions about the what and how and we just have that email that you saw. We are confident in Patrick and if I have a chat with riders then that’s what I’ll tell them."

If a deal does go ahead, there is an unsettling feeling rippling through the peloton of contracts being voided for several riders and staff. Two sources have told GCN that the new team will enlist the lion's share of Jumbo-Visma riders, with just five to seven athletes coming from Quick-Step’s pool of talent.

It’s unlikely that the team would entertain the idea of running three sprinters, with Olav Kooij from Jumbo-Vimsa and Luke Lamperti and Tim Merlier from Quick-Step. Much depends on the future of Evenepoel and the cadre of climbers Lefevere has built around the Belgian star in recent years, while the future of Julian Alaphilippe has barely made ripples on social media or in the press.

Would the team consider the Frenchman an asset or a distraction? It’s unclear and even the rider himself doesn’t know what the score is.

When asked what his feelings were on the idea of the teams coming together, the two-time world champion responded: "Nothing, because I know nothing about this."

As for Van Bondt, he’s been here before as a rider, back when he moved from Farm Frites to Mercury-Viatel at the turn of the century, only for the American team to run out of cash mid-season.

"The team went bankrupt and that was a worse situation because there was no money, so for the moment I can handle it pretty well. It’s always strange of course when you read things in the newspaper and you have to find out like that. It’s always difficult to handle it. There are lots of questions but that’s normal," he said.

But what of Mikel Landa, Yves Lampaert, Kasper Asgreen, James Knox, and Alaphilippe? Whether they have existing deals with Soudal Quick-Step or – in Landa’s case – have agreed to join in 2024, the future holds many question marks, and for the staff behind the scenes, it might take more than faith in Lefevere to find the right answers.