'At Red Bull, they hate to lose' - Ralph Denk on Evenepoel's impact and closing the gap to Pogacar

The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team finished second behind UAE Team Emirates-XRG in the 2026 team rankings, but team manager Ralph Denk wants to do even better in 2027, urging his riders to be ready if Tadej Pogačar and UAE show any sign of weakness.

Red Bull rose from sixth to second in the UCI team ranking, moving past Lidl-Trek, Decathlon CMA CGM and Visma | Lease a Bike. They finished 2026, more than 5,000 points behind UAE but appear to be closing the gap on their super team rivals.

In his first season with Red Bull, Remco Evenepoel scored over 7,000 of the team's 25,000 UCI ranking points and finished second overall at the Tour de France and third at the Tour of Flanders, as well as winning Amstel Gold Race.

The Belgian greatly impressed Denk, who finally signed the Belgian after years of trying to tempt him away from Soudal Quick-Step.

"I have a huge respect for what Remco achieved with us in 2026. Also for his involvement in the team and his attitude. He's a real champion," Denk told Domestique.

"He's very consistent. He was winning already in January, He had a good Classics season, then he came good again for the Tour and was still in shape in the autumn. That's hard and not for every rider. But Remco managed to do it.

"He worked super, super hard for the Tour. I'm not a sports scientist but I can see his Training Peaks data and see how much work he did. It was impressive, on the bike and off the bike. That indicates he's very motivated and driven. We need athletes like Remco in modern cycling."

Remco also inspired his teammates, with Denk comparing him to Peter Sagan, who was a team leader in the Classics and Tour stages  but also inspired other riders to step up and win. 

"We are happy with our 2026 season and with what we achieved," Denk said.

"We had three different guys on the podium in the three Grand Tours: We had Jai Hindley on the podium at the Giro, Remco at the Tour and Primoz Roglic at the Vuelta. That's pretty cool and shows the strength of the team and the performance staff. 

"There are four big championships in cycling and we won three, with Remco taking the world time trial title and the European road race title, and Primož [Roglič] winning the European time trial title too. Those are nice.

"We won 44 races during the whole season, from the TTT in Mallorca to the Chrono des Nations in October. The Under 23 rookie team and the junior team also did very well, to confirm our development programme is on track." 


Denk is softly spoken, his mentality firmly rooted in his origins in southern Germany and his gradual rise from racing mountain bikes, owning a bike shop, a small continental team and then growing year on year.

He sold the majority of the team to Red Bull in 2024, but he remains as team manager and has helped the team develop even further. He has used Red Bull's financial muscle and global marketing power to sign Evenepoel and build a cutting-edge performance team to help him perform at his best.

"We always aim high. At Red Bull they hate to lose," Denk said of his team owners. "Red Bull are very competitive and very driven. They want to win in every sport they engage in."

The next goal is to challenge UAE and Pogačar. Denk admitted that Pogačar is still at another level but he wants his team to be ready for any possibility.

"That's the goal in the midterm but we all know how unique Tadej is," he said.

"We know the performance numbers of our guys and we can calculate the numbers of Tadej. There's still a gap.

"The question is if Tadej is still at his best level and if he will always be at this level. Nobody knows. So I always advise my team: we have to be ready to take advantage of any weakness with Tadej and UAE."