Remco Evenepoel breaking his contract with Soudal-QuickStep early to join Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe will remain one of the stories of the season as all the move’s implications play out ahead of the 2026 season’s start, but what has he actually gained in making the move?
Of course, there are financial benefits for Evenepoel, but it also provides the 25-year-old a fresh start after the entirety of his seven years at the professional level have been at Soudal-QuickStep, and could bring him closer to his main objective of winning the Tour de France.
It’s a move that has been in the making for years, with Evenepoel wanting to ensure it was right, both timing-wise and for his future as already one of the very best riders in all of cycling.
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As teams go, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe are among those with the biggest budget, and have been building up as a project for several years, even before the energy drinks giant came on board as a sponsor last season.
Now they have their new figurehead for the years to come, and someone to build all of their ambitions around. For them, Evenepoel offered the most obvious route to challenging the likes of Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour’s near future, and what more incentive could you want? But what factors drew the Belgian into finally providing them with his signature and agreeing to try and live up to that enormous pressure?
A ‘super team’ budget
Maxim Van Gils broke his contract to join Red Bull last year, and quickly spoke of the financial benefits (Image credit: Getty Images)
Money is essential in making an early contract break like Evenepoel’s happen, and not only would Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have had to offer the Belgian a significant salary, but their biggest pull was surely the size of the team’s overall budget.
Soudal-QuickStep have almost always punched above their weight when it came to budgets vs performance in the peloton, but as Evenepoel pursues the very top of Grand Tour racing, having enough money to maximise preparation, equipment, and provide him as strong a support squad as possible becomes ever more important.
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Red Bull’s presence simply offered something that the Belgian team, which nurtured his path to stardom, could no longer maintain, exposing an obvious factor in his decision to change allegiances.
Maxim van Gils is another rider to have broken a previous contract to join the German squad, and he, at training camp last year, characterised his move from ProTeam Lotto best by stating: “At Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, for one job, you have 10 guys. At Lotto, there was one.”
The lack of budget constraints, in comparison to his soon-to-be previous employee, will give Evenepoel ample opportunity to pursue his Tour de France goals, be that in the form of altitude camps or the expertise of team Head of Engineering Dan Bigham. And again, his own financial benefit cannot be overstated.
A stronger supporting cast
A potential partnership at the Tour de France in years to come (Image credit: Getty Images)
This is no slight at those who aided Evenepoel in Grand Tours while at Soudal-QuickStep – after all, he won the Vuelta a España riding for them in 2022 – but Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s wealth of climbing support is key to this move.
Mikel Landa proved a cut above Evenepoel’s other teammates at last year’s Tour, and not only aided him to a podium, but also finished fifth while doing it; however, being the only top climbing support meant that an injury could leave his teammate isolated before a race even began.
This happened, to an extent, at the most recent Tour, after Landa fractured his back at the Giro, with Evenepoel’s team strength clearly a step below Pogačar’s and Vingegaard’s at UAE and Visma in the hectic opening week of punchy stages, but also the early mountain tests before he abandoned.
Linking to the previous benefit, Red Bull’s budget will allow them to bring in and add to the already very strong core of climbers they have to support Evenepoel in pursuit of his biggest goals.
Whether it’s Primož Roglič, Florian Lipowitz, or Jai Hindley next season, it’s fair to say that Evenepoel will very likely have one of the very strongest supporting casts at next year’s Tour, unlike the most recent edition, where his exit actually allowed Soudal-QuickStep to shine in the breakaway.
A fresh start, but with familiar faces
New, potentially stronger teammates are a big plus, of course, for Evenepoel, but being allowed to bring a degree of familiarity with him to his new employer will only make the move smoother.
Former Belgian national coach Sven Thourenhout has already been announced as a new DS for the German team in recent weeks, with Flemish media reporting that QuickStep sports director Klaas Lodewyck will follow suit in the coming weeks. Italian rider Mattia Cattaneo is also rumoured to be joining him at Red Bull for 2026.
The comfort of those who know him will make the transfer easier, highlighting also that going forward from 2026, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe will very much be his team, with a focus on getting him to the top step of the Tour de France.
A move also marks a fresh start for both the team and their new star rider, with Red Bull ending their partnerships with Chief of Sports Rolf Aldag and lead DS Enrico Gasparotto in recent weeks, in order to make way for Evenepoel and his entourage.
Team CEO Ralph Denk said the team is entering “A new chapter” when they announced Evenepoel, and the vast changes in staff only attest to that idea. Whether a fresh start, with some familiar faces along for the ride, actually sees him reach a new peak is a whole other question that only time will tell.
No equipment headache
Evenepoel will be aboard the same road bikes and time trial bikes when he joins Red Bull (Image credit: Getty Images)
A huge factor, aside from the more obvious personnel and monetary benefits, is the ease of change in equipment for Evenepoel, that being no change at all, with Specialized providing the bikes for both Soudal-QuickStep and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
The American bike brand is known for having one of the fastest bikes in the peloton, which Evenepoel has benefited from while at the Belgian squad, but also became a leading figurehead for.
Not having to get to know a new road bike or re-optimise for a different time trial bike should aid Evenepoel in hitting the ground running when his time starts with Red Bull in 2026.
Specialized also reportedly pay a large chunk of Evenepoel’s multi-million Euro salary, so only teams on their bikes, or able to sign a new deal, were likely to have been involved in any sort of move away from QuickStep. Putting it simply, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe made the most sense equipment-wise.
Raising his ceiling away from a Classics team
One final factor which benefits Evenepoel is the idea that he can raise his ceiling further away from Soudal-QuickStep. Obviously, this links to the money and both new and old teammates, but the theory that his soon-to-be former team had maximised their potential with him is likely one Evenepoel bought into.
After all, they were never meant to be a GC team focused on performing overall at Grand Tours – they managed to do it with Evenepoel, to win the Vuelta and take third at the Tour, but this was well away from the team’s identity.
It also coincided with their traditional arena of success – the Classics – drastically suffering as a result, with a large proportion of the budget being spent to buy support riders for Evenepoel, and extend his contract with a salary that kept him from jumping ship.
Now, however, after seven years, the partnerships has ran their course, and Evenepoel must believe that the best way he can reach new levels in the coming years is to break from the emotional connection he has with a home Belgian team, and think of himself, and what team can offer him the best path to an even higher ceiling.
Soudal-QuickStep have already started veering towards their traditional Classics roots in the current transfer window, with Jasper Stuyven and Edward Planckaert being brought in to bolster their one-day squad. Their future GC ambitions started and will most likely end with Evenepoel’s departure.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe are the chosen team. The rest of the implications of his landmark move will unfold in the coming weeks, months and into next season, but for now, when you lay the potential benefits out, Evenepoel’s departure is certainly understandable.