A case could be made for the fabulous American gymnast Simone Biles who won three gold medals in Paris but she is nearing the end of her career while the 24-year-old Belgian is much closer to the beginning than the end of his. In light of Evenepoel’s accomplishments in his first French summer, there seems to be no limit to what he can still achieve.
This has also made him one of the hottest properties in all sports, with such big-money teams as Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe and INEOS Grenadiers ready to spend lavishly to acquire his services. HLNreported that, according to “several sources within the peloton,” a deal that would see Evenepoel move from current team Soudal–Quick Step – which has him signed until the end of 2026 – to Red Bull for 2025 is “imminent or already complete.” In addition, the publication stated, INEOS, UAE Team Emirates and Israel–Premier Tech are also interested in acquiring his services.
Whoever wants him will have to be able to shell out a fortune. Soudal team boss Patrick Lefevere told Het Nieuwsblad, “As long as no one puts anything concrete on my table, he will ride for us. If someone says tomorrow, ‘Look, that’s his annual salary, we’ll double that and add a little bit more,’ then I might be able to accept it. But first and foremost, it’s about the athlete himself! A year or two ago, he said that there was a lot we weren’t up to par with. But I don’t know in which area we can’t keep up. I’m not going to give him away for nothing.”
Evenepoel’s annual salary is not known, though one report estimates it at about €2.8 million or less than half of what Tadej Pogačar earns at UAE Team Emirates. That would be an expensive contract buy-out for a team, especially as that team would probably also have to put Evenepoel’s salary on a par with Pogačar’s.
Of the teams cited in the report, only Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe and INEOS Grenadiers have both the money and the need. I cannot see Evenepoel signing with UAE Team Emirates, which already has a charismatic superstar like Pogačar as its leader. And Israel–Premier Tech may not have the money.
INEOS probably needs him more than anyone. The former lords of the peloton have hit a dry spell that has seen some top riders leave. In the past weeks, unofficial reports announced the departures of Jhonatan Narváez to UAE Team Emirates and Ethan Hayter to Soudal–Quick Step. A superstar like Evenepoel would give the team instant credibility and attract other riders to its ranks.
As for Red Bull, they already have a top rider in Primož Roglič who transferred there from Visma–Lease a Bike to have a real chance to win the Tour de France. But he had a disastrous Tour, falling behind early in the yellow jersey race and then abandoning it after crashing in two successive stages. In addition, the Slovenian will be 35 in October, a little long in the tooth to compete with the likes of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar. It’s hard to see that big-name, big-bucks team stick with an ageing rider who is prone to falling from his bike.
The move to Red Bull would certainly help Evenepoel, if only because the team has several accomplished Grand Tour climbers on its squad, such as Vuelta winner Jai Hindley, Alexandr Vlasov, and Emanuel Buchmann.
As for Soudal, Hayter is a fast rider and sometimes sprinter who suits Soudal’s traditional strategy of winning Grand Tour stages and one-day races. But the team and Evenepoel need at least one more accomplished climber – or, better, two – to help the excellent Mikel Landa counter Pogačar’s army of top mountain men – Adam Yates, João Almeida, Juan Ayuso and Felix Großschartner (to name just a few) in the Tour de France.
The transfer market is already starting to heat up. In addition to news regarding Evenepoel, it will be interesting to see what climbers, if any, Lefevere signs in order to keep his superstar. “We’ve never paid Remco a single euro too little, on the contrary,” Lefevere said. “So in that area, it’s not a problem. It’s not easy. You have to compete with big budgets. But, on the other hand, we’re up for everything.”
It sounds like he is willing to deal if…
