Patrick Lefevere has said it will be clear by Monday whether the proposed merger of his Soudal-QuickStep team and Jumbo-Visma will go ahead. The Belgian made his first public comments about the merger in a lengthy interview with Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, where he also acknowledged that Jumbo-Visma’s concurrent negotiations with Amazon could be a “game changer” in any deal.
Lefevere admitted he could not yet say “everything” about the deal, news of which was broken by Wielerflits last Sunday, but he outlined that the idea was first floated in talks before the Tour de France between Soudal-QuickStep majority shareholder Zdenek Bakala and Jumbo-Visma board member Robert van der Wallen.
“This happened in the context of OneCycling, a project in which a number of top teams want to unite to position ourselves more strongly in the cycling economy,” said Lefevere, adding that Remco Evenepoel’s father Patrick subsequently met with Bakala in Geneva to outline his concerns about Soudal-QuickStep. “Highly exceptional for a rider's agent, but whatever. Those two things together led Bakala to contact Robert van der Wallen again.”
Lefevere and Jumbo-Visma manager Richard Plugge both attended the next meeting, which took place in Vienna on the penultimate day of the Tour de France. “To my surprise, Richard Plugge also suddenly arrived there. We talked for an hour or so and then flew back to Paris,” Lefevere said. “After that, some time passed. I involved QuickStep and Soudal, and Richard spoke with Visma. At a certain point, a letter of intent to merge was signed.”
Lefevere confirmed that he would sell his shares in the event of a merger and sit on the board rather than serve as CEO, with the team owned by Bakala, Van der Wallen and Plugge. “It’s the role I prefer at the moment. If Plugge becomes CEO, it will be up to him to solve the pressing problems, not up to me anymore,” said Lefevere. “I will be 69 years old in January.”
It is not yet known how many riders and staff from Soudal-QuickStep would form part of the new outfit. “It hasn’t yet been determined what the structure of the merger team might look like,” said Lefevere, who indicated that Evenepoel was a part of their plans. “The intention is of course for him to remain on board. I asked the people of Jumbo-Visma to talk to him, which has now happened.”
The merger would also open an additional place in the WorldTour, meaning that the Soudal-QuickStep licence could be sold to an ambitious ProTeam. “I can't give a proper answer to that at the moment. If other people are in need of a World Tour licence, it may be an option to sell it, but I'm already speaking out of turn,” said Lefevere, who conceded it would be “mission impossible” for another team to employ “over roughly fifteen riders and x number of staff” at this late date.
On Thursday, meanwhile, it was reported that Amazon would become a sponsor of Jumbo-Visma next season regardless of whether the merger went ahead or not, though the precise nature of the partnership is not yet clear.
“That's the part I can't answer. Apparently, things have accelerated on the Dutch side. But I have no idea in what capacity Amazon will come on board. Maybe it's about content creation, internal productions, I don't know,” Lefevere said.
“The fact is this: with three parties – Soudal, Quick-Step and Visma – everyone can find their place 'proportionately.' With Amazon as a fourth party, this is no longer possible. As far as I know, there was no mention of their arrival last week. So yes, this could be a game changer.”
Asked if Amazon’s entry might torpedo the merger, Lefevere said: “I can’t assess that. At the very least, it casts a different light on the matter.”
Lefevere insisted, however, that the lie of the land would be altogether clearer in the coming days.
“Look, after the letter of intent it all dragged on for too long,” he said. “But this cannot continue for three more days. Zdenek Bakala is currently flying to Europe. There should be much more clarity by Monday.”
