Remco Evenepoel is the one that got away, for INEOS Grenadiers. Over the years it’s been heard time and time again that the British team attempted to buy the Belgian out of his contract with Soudal – Quick-Step, but unsuccessfully. But according to Mark Cavendish these aren’t just rumours, it is a known fact and happened at the same time as the Manxman was trying to join the team in late 2022.
Cavendish wrote a lot of interesting insight in his autobiography ‘Believe: Achieving the Impossible’, and a section of the book describes his time after agreeing to leave Soudal – Quick-Step at the end of 2022. He was set to join the B&B Hotels team, which then came to an abrupt end in November of that year after the Manxman had reached a deal with the French Pro Team. It was a disaster for the veteran who needed only one more victory to achieve his Tour de France stage win record. He began late contacts with several teams, one of them INEOS Grenadiers.
“With the B&B ship now sunk, I got a call from Rod (Ellingworth, part of INEOS’ management at the time, ed.). They were working on something. Something that would blow the budget and a bit more. But it may not come off. And if it didn’t, there might be a place at Ineos. I didn’t need Rod to tell me that the ‘something big’ was signing Remco Evenepoel,” Cavendish said in frank words.
But the British team couldn’t go through all of the barriers in the way of buying the then World Champion’s contract: “This sort of deal was rare in cycling because it was complex and expensive. Knowing my soon-to-be-old QuickStep boss Patrick Lefevere, who’d have to give his blessing, it looked like a long shot … but in cycling, like everywhere else, money talked.”Rejected by Brailsford
But Cavendish’s story didn’t end with INEOS, it ended with XDS Astana Team, where in 2024 he finally managed to get the final and perhaps most important victory of his career at the Tour de France. INEOS, at this time depleted of leaders to fight for the Tour de France win, didn’t want to take in the riders that in 2012 rode in the rainbow jersey with ‘Team Sky’ at the time.
Cavendish talks of contact with the team management, but it would never go too far. “Rod had said that he would know ‘in a few days’, but I was getting anxious, so I suggested expediting things: how about I sent a presentation or deck to him and Dave Brailsford? Rod confirmed that it would be Dave who would have the ultimate say, so I should send it to him”.
Cavendish did actually put together an actual presentation for Brailsford, but with no result achieved. “It took me almost a week to put together. It took Brailsford the same time to respond, though via Rod. The answer, in summary ‘no thanks, Cav’. Ineos Grenadiers weren’t signing Mark Cavendish … and they didn’t sign Remco Evenepoel.”
Cavendish is one of the most successful riders in modern cycling and his insight into the behind the scenes of the World Tour provides valuable information. @Sirotti