Luxembourger's strong Tour de France sees Trek lose control
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Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) leads the three breakaway riders through up the final small cobbled climb before the finish line in Asolo(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Bob Jungels at the 2015 Tour de France(Image credit: Trek Segafredo)
Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) leads the break on stage 4 of the Tour de Romandie.(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Bob Jungels emerges from the Apeldoorn Omnisport centre where the Giro's opening time trial started.(Image credit: Courtesy of Polartec-Kometa)
Bob Jungels of team Etixx - Quick Step rides to the start of the 10th stage of the 99th Giro d'Italia
Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) leads Andrey Amador (Movistar) and Diego Ulissi (Lampre) over the last cobbled climb of stage 11(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The previous transfer window was effectively dominated by three key moves: Richie Porte to BMC, Michal Kwiatkowski to Team Sky and Mark Cavendish to Dimension Data. Bob Jungels' transfer from Trek to Etixx-QuickStep went largely unnoticed but anyone who has witnessed the 23-year-old apply his talent over the Giro d'Italia's first 11 stages will have been impressed. Transfer of the season? Only time – and perhaps the next two weeks at the Giro – will tell.
The Luxembourg rider's move to Etixx came down to a number of factors. First and foremost, team manager Patrick Lefevere was on the lookout for a new, 'highly talented', and 'cheaper' version of Kwiatkowski, who he was resigned to losing to Team Sky. Lefevere and Jungels had crossed paths before, back when a young junior had caught the eyes of the talent scouts at the Bakala academy. Fate would intervene in that instance, with the recently-formed Luxembourg Leopard set-up tugging Jungels into their ranks.
Two days later he was at it again, escaping in the race-winning break to Gap and finishing fifth. He was now inside the top 40 overall and suddenly the contract offer that looked appealing back in June was shrouded in hesitancy and doubt. Cyclingnews understands that the relationship between the rider and his team changed during the Tour – principally straight after Jungels began to pick up results.
Back to the Tour and on stage 17 Jungels conceded a few minutes but the following day, when Romain Bardet took the stage in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, he finished fourth. He was now inside the top 30 overall and fifth in the white jersey standings for best young rider. While others were wilting and weakening, Jungels was holding his own.
Despite losing time on stage 19 he remained within the top 30 heading into the crucial and final mountain stage to Alpe d'Heuz. A 13th place that day was all Lefevere needed to see before deciding to make a move.
The day after the Tour reached Paris the Belgian team's boss sat down with Jungels and his agent and quickly made a proposal. Two years, an increased salary, and a plan to develop him; that was all the rider needed to hear. The contract that had been agreed in principle with Trek wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.
"The Alpe d'Huez stage showed that he had the potential of a three-week engine. That basically brought the interest from Etixx," McQuaid tells Cyclingnews.
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"Patrick did his pitch, and I then sat down with Bob. There wasn't a massive amount of dialogue, there was a serious offer after the Tour and that's how it came about."
McQuaid went back to Trek shortly after meeting with Etixx, informing them that Jungels had been offered a contract from another team, although he admits that, "I probably didn't tell them which team." This was all before Trek had a deal in place with new sponsor Segafredo and, although they had money to invest, they were unable to match Etixx's firepower in the transfer market.
Trek manager Luca Guercilena, who has brought on a number of young riders at the team, is understood to have been hurt when he found out that Jungels was leaving, particularly given that he thought he and Jungels had both expressed the desire to continue the relationship back in June.
In August, when he knew Jungels was set to depart for another team, Guercilena told Cyclingnews, "It's a shame because we invested a lot in him since he was in the development team and we've sustained his growth for a number of years.
"In the last two years he was on a good contract with us but let's say we were at a point when we didn't see many results from him for a number of months. I wouldn't say the return we got back from him was what we expected but we're sad to see him go. He's made his choice and we wish him the best of luck."
Trek, of course, had an inkling that Jungels would leave for Etixx. After the Tour, he would go on to race once more for the team, at the Clásica San Sebastián at the start of August, where he finished an anonymous 80th.
Within a matter days the news was confirmed as the press release from Etixx, announcing the Luxembourger's arrival, landed in their inbox.
Daniel Benson was the Editor in Chief at Cyclingnews.com between 2008 and 2022. Based in the UK, he joined the Cyclingnews team in 2008 as the site's first UK-based Managing Editor. In that time, he reported on over a dozen editions of the Tour de France, several World Championships, the Tour Down Under, Spring Classics, and the London 2012 Olympic Games. With the help of the excellent editorial team, he ran the coverage on Cyclingnews and has interviewed leading figures in the sport including UCI Presidents and Tour de France winners.
