The WorldTour is down to its last two races of the season, but anticipation for 2024’s calendar is on the rise after a report on the Dutch cycling news site Wielerflits that Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-Quick Step could merge into a superteam as early as next year. Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo said in June that it would cease its sponsorship of the team that swept the 2023 Grand Tours after 2024 if not sooner. Soudal-QuickStep was QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl last season.
The mind reels at the prospect of Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Primoz Roglic, Wout Van Aert, Sepp Kuss and Mikel Landa all on the same team.
According to Wielerflits, Jumbo-Visma’s managing director Richard Plugge would become the CEO, the squad’s sports director Merijn Zeeman would be the team’s head coach, and Soudal-QuickStep’s CEO Patrick Lefevere would switch roles, becoming a member of the new team’s supervisory board.
Jumbo is currently the UCI’s second-ranked WorldTour squad with 26949.69 points and Soudal-QuickStep is fourth ranked with 16467.86 points. Vingegaard is second ranked in the individual table, with Evenepoel third, Roglic fourth, Van Aert sixth, Landa 13th and Kuss 14th. The top-ranked Canadians are Michael Woods in 59th and Derek Gee in 65th.
It’s unclear what the merger’s impact would be on the Jumbo-Visma women’s outfit or AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep.
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