The end of an era - What Patrick Lefevere's retirement means for pro cycling

Patrick Lefevere was an astute team manager, his skills built on decades of winning big races, finding sponsors and signing talented riders. He knew how to get the best out of his riders and staff, but also knew when it was time to let a big-name team leader go and quickly sign the next great thing. 

Now close to his 70th birthday, with Remco Evenepoel the dominant force at Soudal-QuickStep and the world of professional cycling very different to when Lefevere became a team manager in 1979, the Belgian former pro has realised it is time to let go of the team he created and made so successful. 

When Soudal-QuickStep briefly rebranded to T-Rex QuickStep at this year's Vuelta, it was hard to miss the parallels with the team's historic manager. Lefevere was aggressive, gigantic, and often comical, but at the same time held Jurassic views on the sport and the dynamics of the wider modern world. He was frequently centre-stage for an ill-judged comment or backward perspective. 

For Soudal-QuickStep, for Belgian cycling, and for professional cycling, it really is the end of an era. 54-year-old Jurgen Foré will step up and take full control of the team, while Lefevere retires and becomes an honorary board member of the team. 

Lefevere will not be involved in the day-to-day running of the team and his influence on the sport will also weaken. He will surely attend the biggest races and speak his mind, but as a guest and veteran of the sport, not from a position of power. 

"It is a life-changing moment to leave a role that I have committed so much of my life to but I felt that it was the right moment for this change," Lefevere said. 

Lefevere informed the 180 riders and staff of the Soudal-QuickStep and AG Insurance-Soudal women's teams of his decision at their annual dinner at their training camp in Spain on Tuesday evening. The news rapidly replaced Tadej Pogacar's 2025 goals as the top-billed news of the day, another sign of his influence and history in the sport.

"I didn't want to leave in the middle of the season and the successor is ready, so now is the right time. I'm turning 70 and I've done enough," he told Sporza, who started one report by suggesting "the cycling world needs to find a new Godfather." 

"The decision was certainly not forced. I flew to Switzerland for a conversation with the team owner Zdenek Bakala. We made the decision together there," Lefevere said.

"We are going to continue the team. I know I am not leaving a burning boat. Bakala has confirmed that he believes in the team and will continue to invest."

Some of his oldest staff were apparently in tears. Many of Lefevere's former riders praised him for his leadership and success, while highlighting his blunt and sometimes aggressive character. 

"Patrick says what he thinks. I can handle that. It might have bothered others more but I could handle it well. And I often answered back," former Belgian rider and multiple Classics winner Tom Boonen said.

"We had a lot of respect for each other and that is still the case. Patrick is one of the few people who has been at the top for so long." 

Fighter, businessman, car salesman

Lefevere often reminded people that he was a good bookkeeper and so counted every penny in his team budget, along with his wife who managed the team's accounts. He often lost his temper at Cyclingnews when we asked him questions he didn't like, but also spoke at length and openly about the problems of the sport. His voice will be missed.

"Patrick was a real fighter, a businessman who I always compared to a West Flemish car salesman," former national coach and television commentator José De Cauwer told Sporza. 

"If you tried to sell him your car, according to him, there was nothing good about it. But if he then sold the same car, it was the best car in the world.

"In Belgium there are few people in racing with greater merit."

Not everyone will be sad to see Lefevere go. 

His straight-talking was occasionally offensive and went too far. He openly criticised riders, often while in contract negotiations with them. He drove a hard bargain but was also a father figure in a contrast of styles.   

When he insinuated that Julian Alaphilippe's partner Marion Rousse was the cause of the Frenchman's lacklustre performances, Lefevere faced a 20,000 CHF fine from the UCI for comments that were ‘disparaging toward women’. 

He preferred to apologise in a moment of understanding, but he struggled to understand the differences and needs of managing a women's team. He was entrenched in his own character. 

Yet his teams, which spanned from Marc Soap Plant to GB-MG, Mapei, Domo-Farm Fries, Quick-Step and then Soudal, between 1979 and today, were always successful, avoiding the worst controversies of the sport and winning the biggest Classics. 

Lefevere's team manager palmares include 22 monument victories, seven world titles and 124 Grand Tour stages as part of over 1,000 victories.  

A new era

Lefevere will officially step down at the end of the year but in truth, Jurgen Foré and Evenepoel are already in the driving seat. 

Cyclingnews has been told that Foré was able to convince Evenepoel and his father, who acts as his agent, to ignore the temptations of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgohe and stay with Soudal-QuickStep. Foré managed to find the extra funds and strengthen the team to ease any tensions with Evenepoel. His task will be to improve and develop the team even more to match Evenepoel's ambitions.

Foré is very different to Lefevere, he is more modern thinking and less vocal. He is the son of former cyclist Noël Foré and raced until he was 23 but soon moved into the world of business consulting with Deloitte. He is softly spoken but commands an air of authority. It's a stark contrast – a corporate C-suite has taken over from the do-it-all former pro rider.

Foré has been tasked with strengthening the sportive, commercial and operational processes of the team. He will be part of the team's executive board, which includes majority shareholder Zdenek Bakala, Lefevere and the team’s legal counsel Auret Van Zyl.

"These are big shoes to fill," Foré admitted on Tuesday morning. 

"Patrick is a big personality and has been successful for a long time. I am proud to take over from him and will do everything I can to do it as well as possible. But I will remain myself: I would rather be the best version of myself than a bad copy of someone else."

The Lefevere era in professional cycling is now officially over. 

Now it is up Foré and Evenepoel to write the next chapter of Soudal-QuickStep's long history in the sport, to keep Belgian cycling on the map and in the WorldTour as they take on Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and their bigger budget rival superteams.