With Remco Evenepoel leaving, a whole chapter is closing at Soudal Quick-Step. The team now wants to return to its classic identity, with cobbled specialists and sprint stars back at the core. But going back to “how it was” will be anything but simple. Because it is not just Evenepoel who won’t be there next year: Pieter Serry, one of the most loyal workers in the peloton, has also called time on his career.
Serry turned professional in 2011 with Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator, and just two years later he earned his chance at WorldTour level. Omega Pharma–Quick-Step signed the then 24-year-old Belgian, and one of the happiest marriages in the peloton was born. Serry would stay with the same organisation for the rest of his career, spending a remarkable 13 seasons with the Wolfpack.
Okay, the climber never won a professional race in his long career. But at his best, Serry was a true warrior, a brutally tough rider to drop. He could hold on uphill for a long time and was strong on the more rolling terrain as well. He finished third and fourth at Brabantse Pijl, and ninth at Strade Bianche. In his very first WorldTour season, he even took seventh place at Il Lombardia.
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Serry, one of Evenepoel’s most loyal lieutenants
But the real value of the rider from Aalter cannot be measured in his own results. At least not those with his name on them, because he was worth so much more. Over the last seven years of his career, he became almost inseparably linked to Remco Evenepoel. The young Belgian joined Deceuninck–Quick-Step still a bit green and wide-eyed, but quickly found a mentor in Serry—and, above all, someone who made him feel at ease.
It is impressive how quickly Serry transformed from pure attacker into ultimate domestique. Of the seven Grand Tours Evenepoel rode with the Belgian team, Serry was present at five. He was there for his leader’s Grand Tour debut at the Giro d’Italia, even though Evenepoel did not make it to the finish that year. And when Evenepoel went on to win the Vuelta a España, Serry was again at his side—until he had to abandon after eight days due to a coronavirus infection.
Because of a crash in 2024, Serry never got to make his Tour de France debut. It is actually remarkable that he never started there. He rode 17 Grand Tours in total, but all of them either in Italy (10) or Spain (7). And he was just as indispensable outside the three-week races: when Evenepoel won Liège–Bastogne–Liège in both 2022 and 2023, Serry was part of his support squad. Even with the Belgian national team, when Evenepoel became world road race champion in Wollongong, you could see Serry celebrating.
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Serry transformed Evenepoel into indefatigable ‘Rocky Balboa’From that World Championships in Australia, some brilliant images emerged of the Belgian squad celebrating. Evenepoel had already offered a heartfelt thank-you, but Serry could not resist adding his own “speech”. Well, it wasn’t his own… he copied a famous scene from Sylvester Stallone in the film Rocky Balboa, but it was inspiring none the less:
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”
It got plenty of laughs, but the words are painfully accurate. And Evenepoel knew that better than anyone. Two years earlier, he had looked death in the eye at Il Lombardia, when he plunged off a bridge, breaking his pelvis and suffering a lung contusion. Barely a year after his World Championships title, Evenepoel went on to win La Doyenne, and there was Serry again—delivering the same speech.
Evenepoel will surely carry Serry’s words with him as he heads to Red Bull–BORA-hansgrohe. The 36-year-old super-domestique will not follow him to the German team: he said goodbye to the sport at Il Lombardia. The timing is probably coincidental, but it makes his retirement all the more beautiful. Because his job is done. Evenepoel has spread his wings and left the nest. And Serry? He will probably still follow his every move. But no longer as a domestique—only as a friend.