{"id":207617,"date":"2025-10-12T14:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T14:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/207617\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T14:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T14:01:10","slug":"end-of-an-era-as-remco-evenepoel-leaves-soudal-quick-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/207617\/","title":{"rendered":"End of an era as Remco Evenepoel leaves Soudal Quick-Step"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven-year relationship concludes with defiant display by Evenepoel at Il Lombardia.<\/p>\n

\"Remco<\/p>\n

Remco Evenepoel (Team Soudal Quick-Step) at Il Lombardia 2025 on October 11, 2025 in Bergamo, Italy. (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Updated October 12, 2025 03:40AM<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t get the wins he wanted the past three weekends, but Remco Evenepoel<\/a> was relieved and smiling after Il Lombardia<\/a> Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Belgian has had an at times greatly frustrating season, with his near-disastrous crash last winter compromising his training and leaving him without the proper foundation for key races.<\/p>\n

That in turn saw his form falter at key moments, and was at least partly responsible for his abandon at the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

Finishing second in Il Lombardia wasn\u2019t a victory, but it does mean he heads into the off season in fine form and with growing confidence.<\/p>\n

That could be the basis for a very strong 2026: safe to say Evenepoel is back on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just happy with how I have been racing in the past two months, or one month and a half because I only raced from the beginning of September,\u201d he said after the last monument of 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just happy with the way I can end my season and my career at this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evenepoel was best of the rest, leading the chase after Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a> attacked and easily dispatched the other big favorites on the climb of Passo di Ganda.<\/p>\n

That vicious surge happened inside 38km to go and the Slovenian ultimately finished 1:48 clear, although at least 10 seconds of that deficit was due to Evenepoel being delayed on the final climb close to the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo motorbikes almost crashed in front of me on the last climb,\u201d Evenepoel told CyclingPro.net<\/a>. \u201cThat was pretty hectic, especially because I was going quite fast and then needing to stop on a 15 percent gradient is not that easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a bit of panic with the motorbike and all the cars around, but luckily my gap to Michael Storer<\/a> was big enough to not being in trouble. In the end everything went well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Impossible to react\u2019
\n\"RemcoEvenepoel wanted to win, but accepted second at Il Lombardia (Photo: Sara Cavallini\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Poga\u010dar\u2019s move and Evenepoel\u2019s chase was a replica of how things turned out at the world championships and European championships.<\/p>\n

On each occasion the Belgian was with others in pursuit, dropped them and chased alone all the way to the finish.<\/p>\n

That happened again Saturday, with Evenepoel followed by Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling) on the climb, and the duo reeling in Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) before the summit.<\/p>\n

He then dropped those other two riders on the descent and chased hard from there to the line.<\/p>\n

It was his last day racing with Soudal Quick-Step<\/a> prior to his move to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and he had words of praise for the dedication his teammates showed to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one guy in the breakaway, which was the goal. Then Matthia [Cattaneo], [Peter] Sierry, all the others really guided me through the day. So I didn\u2019t have to worry about positioning and all that stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways at the beginning of the descents we were in really good positions, everything went well. So I think overall we didn\u2019t do anything wrong. Also my positioning towards the second-last climb was really good. I was straight away on the wheel of the UAE guys so everything went super well.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet being in the right place at the right time was not quite enough when dealing with a rival as ferocious as the world champion.<\/p>\n

Evenepoel is a very ambitious rider and is desperate to try to close the gap, but he couldn\u2019t react when the hammer went down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment when Tadej attacked the pace was already so high for a certain minute that it was impossible to react,\u201d he accepted. \u201cSo I had to do my own rhythm, my own pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he was okay about the result, saying he was happy with his race.<\/p>\n

He can\u2019t match his big rival yet, but he hopes that next year will be different.<\/p>\n

Saying goodbye to Soudal
\n\"RemcoSaturday marked Evenepoel\u2019s last time racing in the Soudal Quick-Step jersey (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Speaking recently, Evenepoel shrugged off a question about how the gap between the two riders will be able to be closed.<\/p>\n

He said it was up to his new trainer to worry about that and to work out what to do. Collaboration with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe will start soon and trying to find the missing percentages are certain to be top of the agenda.<\/p>\n

He may well take encouragement from Saturday\u2019s result. Okay, he was 1:48 behind Poga\u010dar, but last year he was 3:16 behind when also finishing second.<\/p>\n

For now he is grateful to Soudal Quick-Step. He may be leaving for what he feels are better opportunities, but he also recognised what he was given by that squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just very happy and proud to have been the leader in this team, to have taken a lot of victories for this team,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said this morning, I was going to give myself one more time at the maximum and I think I did it again today. I am the type of guy who will always keep fighting until the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that same ambition which sees him seek pastures new, motivated by the hope that this could be the route to Tour victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just happy with how everything went. The last seven years is something I will take with me for the rest of my life, but I think now it is time for something new to start.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven-year relationship concludes with defiant display by Evenepoel at Il Lombardia. Remco Evenepoel (Team Soudal Quick-Step) at Il…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,54263,82,99383,101320,70573,101321,54266,54267],"class_list":["post-207617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-road","tag-sports","tag-tag-il-lombardia","tag-tag-michael-storer","tag-tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-tag-soudal-quick-step","tag-tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}