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Soudal Quick-Step is wasting no time turning the page on the Remco Evenepoel era.
After the Belgian superstar’s high-profile and sometimes tense transfer this week to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, the Belgian squad is returning to its roots.
And Quick-Step is using what is a kind of “Evenepoel dividend” to fuel a revival of the “Wolfpack.”
Despite a valid contract for 2026, management opted to avoid a protracted legal battle. Terms of agreement remain under wraps, but the Red Bull deal included a reported seven-figure buyout.
“We’re not going to discuss sums, but it’s a fair amount,” Soudal Quick-Step CEO Jurgen Foré told Sporza. “Although sponsors like Soudal would prefer to see a contract honored, we decided we didn’t want to go to court.”
That “fair amount” isn’t just the reported seven-figure buyout, but the team also frees itself from Evenepoel’s estimated €5.5 million annual salary.
That financial windfall is allowing Foré to shop aggressively in the transfer market.
Also read: Evenepoel is now the peloton’s second-best paid rider
The team’s already scooping up top proven classics stars, with the team confirmed Friday that 2022 Paris-Roubaix champion Dylan van Baarle is moving across from Visma-Lease a Bike.
He joins confirmed signees, including 2019 Milan-San Remo winner Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and homegrown prospect Jonathan Vervenne from the devo team.
Evenepoel is gone, but the team is using the extra cash to reboot its stage-raiding, classics-hunting “Wolfpack” that made it cycling’s most feared one-day racing outfit for two decades.
Rebuilding the ‘Wolfpack’ DNA
Van Baarle brings classics pedigree in move to Quick-Step. (Photo: Joris Verwijst/BSR Agency/Getty Images)
Evenepoel’s departure with a year still left on his contract will see Quick-Step reshuffle the chairs inside the team bus.
When Evenepoel burst onto the scene as a precocious teenager in 2019, Quick-Step pivoted its roster to support his stage race ambitions, choosing to sacrifice its trademark classics firepower to back a potential Tour de France winner.
That shift paid off big dividends when Evenepoel delivered Belgium’s first grand tour win in 40 years at the 2022 Vuelta, a Tour de France podium with third in 2024, and a collection of rainbow jerseys and Olympic gold medals.
That came at a cost, and it meant the squad’s spring dominance was dulled.
Also read: Red Bull lands Evenepoel, but can he beat Pogačar and Vingegaard?
Van Baarle’s arrival, confirmed Friday, underscores how the team is rewiring its DNA again.
“I’m incredibly excited to be joining Soudal Quick-Step, a team that I was watching on TV when I was young, especially during Tom Boonen’s days,” Van Baarle said Friday in a team release. “My goal is to be back at my best level for the classics, and hopefully, we will fight for victories there.”
Dylan van Baarle will be a Soudal Quick-Step rider in 2026. The 2022 Paris-Roubaix winner joins on two-year deal pic.twitter.com/MUPFX5RVJo
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) August 8, 2025
There’s more turnover behind the headlines as the Evenepoel deal continues to churn.
Eight riders are on their way out or off-contract, with Mattia Cattaneo expected to follow Evenepoel to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
Budding American star Luke Lamperti is expected to join EF Education-EasyPost, while Pieter Serry, James Knox, Josef Černý, Jordi Warlop, and Antoine Huby remain unconfirmed.
Turning the page on Evenepoel turmoil
Evenepoel congratulates Merlier with a stage win at the 2025 Tour. (Photo: MARCO BERTORELLO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Losing Evenepoel means Quick-Step loses its headline act and one of cycling’s most bankable stars, especially among its Belgian-based backers.
But Foré said Evenepoel’s future with the team became too distracting when it was obvious he wanted to leave. After months and even years of wrangling, everyone finally decided it was time to part ways.
“It’s a kind of relief that there’s clarity,” Foré told Sporza. “We’ve been around for 23 years and have written many chapters. This is just one of them. I want to turn the page now and have confidence.
“This is absolutely not the end of the team.”
Also read: Stuyven joins Quick-Step
In addition to hitting the transfer market, Quick-Step is also doubling down on its existing strengths.
Tim Merlier, fresh off two stage wins at the 2025 Tour, anchors the sprint train, while 21-year-old Paul Magnier — already touted as “the next Tom Boonen” — will see classics leadership.
Mikel Landa remains the team’s best GC bet, under contract through 2026, and he will be targeting the Vuelta a España after returning this week at the Vuelta a Burgos from his Giro crash.
The first big moves of cycling’s transfer window
Jasper Stuyven, 33, has agreed to join Soudal Quick-Step and Attila Valter, 27, has signed for Team Bahrain Victorious, both on three-year deals starting in January.
Sprint Cycling pic.twitter.com/D7caCMScbw
— Velon CC (@VelonCC) August 1, 2025
Evenepoel’s exit will also free up opportunities for rising Belgians like Junior Lecerf, Ilan Van Wilder, and Mauri Vansevenant.
Will the team miss Evenepoel? Absolutely.
Quick-Step knows the Evenepoel era is over, but the team is using the money saved from Evenepoel’s top-level contract to revive its “Wolfpack” brand that made the Belgian squad one of the longest-running teams in the elite men’s WorldTour long before Evenepoel turned pro in 2019.
More signings will be in the cards.