Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe may not have conducted the biggest squad revamp of the winter – at least not in terms of pure numbers anyway – but the German team has certainly made the biggest signing in this off-season’s cycling transfer market.
Yes, the long-rumoured transfer of Remco Evenepoel from Soudal-QuickStep has finally come to pass. The Belgian has, over the past several summers, been linked with a move to both Ineos Grenadiers and Red Bull, though it was only this year, three seasons on from the birth of the rumours, that the move finally happened.
On August 5, the team, bolstered by the 2024 takeover and additional funds from the energy drinks giant, announced the addition of the man who is among the top three Grand Tour riders in the world (for now, he occupies a solid third place behind Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard).
The big move
On paper, the marriage is a positive one for both parties. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe already had several Grand Tour leaders on board, though they were lacking one rider to challenge ‘the big two’ at the Tour de France. Primož Roglič‘s time has come and gone, and the likes of Florian Lipowitz and Giulio Pellizzari are still working their way to the top, even if the German is rising fast.
Evenepoel neatly steps into that top slot for July. He may not be at the level of Pogačar and Vingegaard, but then again, no other rider is. Neither is any other rider at his level in terms of Grand Tour racing.
The team has won a Giro d’Italia with Jai Hindley and a Vuelta a España with Roglič. Now they’ve given themselves the best chance of adding a Tour de France title to that list, even if, right now, it looks as though it will take a sizeable stroke of luck – in the form of crashes, injuries, or calendar changes elsewhere – for it to happen.
For Evenepoel, the move is a step up from Soudal-QuickStep. The Belgian squad may be one of the biggest teams in cycling history, but they’ve never fully perfected a Grand Tour-challenging setup and, frankly, don’t boast the same budget as his new squad.
A Tour support squad of Mikel Landa, Valentin Paret-Peintre and Ilan Van Wilder doesn’t stack up to a potential lineup which might include Roglič, Hindley, Lipowitz, Aleksandr Vlasov, Jan Tratnik, fellow…
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