'Almost a hostile takeover' - Belgium reacts to Evenepoel's Red Bull transfer

When Remco Evenepoel made his professional debut at the 2019 Vuelta a San Luis, all the major Belgian newspapers dispatched reporters to the other end of the Earth to record the boy wonder’s maiden race for posterity.

The attention has never abated since, and Tuesday’s confirmation that Evenepoel will ride for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in 2026 was always likely to dominate headlines in Belgium. The move has been the soap opera of the cycling summer, and there was no shortage of hot takes in the pages of the Flemish and Walloon press on Wednesday morning.

Evenepoel’s move to Red Bull had been rumoured for months and it seemed to be a done deal for weeks, but that didn’t dampen the sense of occasion when the press release finally landed at 5pm on Tuesday afternoon.

Evenepoel wasn’t exactly discovered by Soudal-QuickStep, given that his talent shone so brightly as a junior that nobody could look away, but Patrick Lefevere’s squad had been his cycling home for six years, and the decision to leave for the riches on offer at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe was always going to meet with a strong reaction back home. 

Het Nieuwsblad could understand Evenepoel’s desire to move to a squad with a deeper Grand Tour roster, but the newspaper still questioned his decision to walk out on Soudal-QuickStep a year before the end of his contract.

“Leaving the team before the end of his contract shows little respect for his employer,” Het Nieuwsblad chided. “Had Evenepoel left his team at the end of 2026, he would have had little to reproach him for. Now, there remains that bitter aftertaste of ingratitude and egocentrism.

“Unlike football clubs, which have made player trading their business model and where the contracts of their superstars almost never expire, Soudal-QuickStep expected to see their rider in their colours for at least another year.”

The thought was echoed in the pages of Het Laatste Nieuws by the former pro Jan Bakelants, who acknowledged that he understood Evenepoel’s rationale for leaving but he still questioned both the timing of the transfer and they way it was conducted. “This is a complex transfer,” he wrote. “It’s almost a hostile takeover.”

De Morgen, meanwhile, pointed out that riders who have left QuickStep for greater riches elsewhere over the years have rarely thrived. “Anyone who leaves the Lefevere team, now the Foré team, usually performs less well,” chided the newspaper, which added that Evenepoel’s previous transfer, from PSV Eindhoven to Anderlecht in a previous sporting life, had fallen flat: “We'll have to wait and see if it benefits him. As a footballer, things went downhill after his transfer.”

That idea was countered by La Dernière Heure, where it was argued that the switch was coming “at the right moment for Evenepoel… and for Soudal-QuickStep.” Despite the signing of Mikel Landa in 2024, DH suggested, “Soudal-QuickStep was never able to affirm itself as a Grand Tour team to rival the armadas of UAE Emirates and Visma | Lease a Bike.”

There was a similar take in Le Soir, which outlined how Evenepoel had left Soudal-QuickStep with “no regrets and no thanks” to join Red Bull: “Above all, it marks the end of a long saga, with numerous pages read and reread by the lawyers of the parties concerned to enable the double Olympic champion to plan his departure based solely on his sporting ambitions.”

Sporza analyst José De Cauwer took a nuanced view of the whole affair, reasoning that the timing was – finally – right for both Evenepoel and Soudal-QuickStep after at least three years of dancing around the flames.

“I think the teams and Remco are more ready for it. At Soudal-QuickStep, they have to move on,” De Cauwer said. “It’s not that they weren't ready at Soudal-QuickStep, but I think more money can be thrown at it by Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. That’s what Remco is looking for: an even better framework.”

The idea, of course, is to win the Tour de France. That may or may not happen, but De Cauwer’s view is that Evenepoel isn’t going to die wondering what might have been. “From now on, it’s no longer about trying,” he said. “That doesn’t mean he’ll win the Tour, but there won’t be much better [teams] in the world. In that respect, he made a good choice.” 

One man whose opinions were conspicuously absent from the Belgian press on Wednesday morning were Patrick Lefevere. Shortly after the press releases dropped on Tuesday afternoon, the former QuickStep manager tweeted to say that he would be making no comment on the transfer.

“Since I stepped down as CEO of Soudal Quick-Step, I’m no longer involved in transfers or any team matters. Agreement-wise, I’m also not allowed to communicate about transfers – not even about Remco,” Lefevere wrote. “Please don’t call me. This is the only communication I will make.”

Still, one imagines his Saturday morning column in Het Nieuwsblad will make for intriguing reading. Remco has left the building, but the saga is only really beginning.