Former World Champion Julian Alaphilippe has described the prospects that his team, Soudal-QuickStep, may soon cease to exist in its current form as “sad, above all,” and has expressed a keen desire that the ongoing uncertainty over its future will come to a rapid end.
A member of Soudal-QuickStep for his entire career to date and with a contract until the end of 2024, Alaphilippe’s comments made it clear that the team’s riders are, much like the rest of the cycling world, waiting for fuller information.
But Alaphilippe also expressed regret that, assuming the fusion with Jumbo-Visma goes ahead, one of cycling’s longest-standing top squads would no longer exist in its current format.
“We don’t know much, it’s a bit complicated for everybody we try to remain concentrated on the racing, and we hope the situation will resolve itself soon,” Alaphilippe told CyclingPro.net at the start of the Coppa Bernocchi on Monday.
“I find it all sad, above all, because this is a team that has been at the heart of cycling for many years, with its own history.
“But we’re not going to cry. We’re here to do the race and we see what happens.”
Alaphilippe described the proliferation of question marks regarding the merger as ‘a bit annoying’. Since the news of the potential merger was leaked a little over a week ago to Wielerflits, the dearth of information has been filled by a seemingly endless number of rumours, but few hard facts.
While Soudal team boss Patrick Lefevere has said he expects more news about the merger on Monday, other riders concurred with Alaphilippe about the possible demise of Soudal-QuickStep in its current shape.
“I’m not personally asking myself questions about it all,” former French National Champion Florian Sénéchal told RTBFt over the weekend, “because I’m leaving the team at the end of the season. I just feel a bit bad to see the history of QuickStep finish like that.
“Nothing is decided. We don’t know anything,” Sénéchal, set to ride with Arkéa-B&B Hotels next season, added. “But I hope that the staff aren’t left dangling as a result.”
Jumbo-Visma’s Christophe Laporte said in the same article that he, “like everybody else”, was in the dark about what the future held for both teams.
“Obviously we’re asking ourselves questions because we don’t know what’s going to happen."
Given the considerable uncertainty surrounding Soudal-QuickStep, questions regarding Remco Evenpoel’s possible exit from the squad – something that had died down completely – are once again back on the agenda.
Over the weekend leading, French sports daily L’Equipe quoted an unnamed agent as saying that in the event of a fusion between Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-QuickStep, all the Belgian team’s riders would no longer be under contract, and Evenepoel could then potentially sign for Ineos Grenadier 'in five minutes'.
However, the reality is that at this point in the game, only speculation is available to fill the vacuum of genuine information.
