Remco Evenepoel may be the newest member of the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe team but he has said his new team could have been Ineos Grenadiers as his proposed transfer to the British outfit had progressed significantly behind the scenes.
However, as the potential move gained momentum to the point it was "pretty close", internal changes within Ineos Grenadiers resulted in delays.
Evenepoel said he then reached the point where he could not wait any longer, adding a €7 million get-out fee Soudal-QuickStep was demanding to allow him break his contract also greatly complicated the process.
In the end, Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe had no such internal changes causing delays, and the German team was also able to negotiate and absorb the get-out fee.
And so Evenepoel, one of the hottest riders in the sport, is now with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe as Ineos Grenadiers continues to lack a clear, very strong, team leader.
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“It was pretty close,” Evenepoel has explained of the move to Ineos Grenadiers, adding interest in him really took off when he won the TT world titles in Scotland in late 2023. “With all the changes going on in that team there were some delays and I couldn’t really wait any more.”
The British World Tour team has endured a period of turmoil which was very clear by the end of the 2024 season when a number of riders - including Geraint Thomas and Tom Pidcock - along with performance staff were openly critical.
Thomas said Dave Brailsford, who has just returned to the fold as team boss, had a much clearer vision, and took more direct action, than those running the team when he spoke up last year. Thomas has since retired from racing and has become the team's director of racing, under Brailsford.
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Pidcock last year said there were "a number of things within the team that I have to deal with... and they don’t help me to perform optimally”. He has since left Ineos Grenadiers, joining Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling 12 months ago.
When performance engineer Dan Bigham last year left Ineos Grenadiers for Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, he spoke about he felt the British team was not achieving its potential. Others to question the management of the team include former team riders Luke Rowe and Ethan Hayter.
Evenepoel said his mooted, though ultimately abandoned, transfer to Ineos Grenadiers came at a time when he really wanted a move. He had been promised changes by Soudal-QuickStep and when it became clear over time his expectations would not be met, he had to leave the team, as he felt "stuck" in that environment.
However, though the Ineos Grenadiers transfer had progressed to the point of "close to being done" it then became impossible as the €7 million get-out payment became such an issue for the British team.
“I stayed (at Soudal-QuickStep) because I was promised things, a lot of changes, and I believed it," Evenepoel told The Observer, in an interview with Jeremy Whittle. "Then at some point, I felt ‘OK, this is never going to happen – it’s a no-brainer’. I needed change.”
He added his challenge was now to take all of his training data, and his approach to training and racing, to new team Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe and become a better rider, thus improving the team.
“Everybody wants to win the Tour, but everybody knows that Tadej (Pogačar) has been outstanding,” he said of the four-time Tour de France winner and two-time road race world champion who is likely to remain the man to beat at the French Grand Tour for the foreseeable.
“For us, it’s important to go to the Tour with a really strong team to prove we have a big future. We are aiming to be the best team in the world. I have all my information from the past in my backpack. I’ve taken it to this new team and now it’s up to us to become a new version of myself.”
