Alpecin boss Roodhooft turns talk of mass departure into story of natural selection

Team boss Christoph Roodhooft shrugs when he hears the word chaos. “Hectic? Yes, it is always busy for us,” he said to Wielerflits. “That has not been different from other years. But when you can finalise a deal like this, it is always pleasant, and it was time for it to come to a conclusion.” 

Houle comes in with the backing of Canadian co-title sponsor Premier Tech, which ended its long-running support of Israel-Premier Tech and has now stepped into the Belgian squad as namesponsor.

On paper, the latest signing is just one line in a long list of updates. New arrivals Gerben Thijssen, Lindsay De Vylder, Tim Marsman, Maurice Ballerstedt, Florian Sénéchal, Jonas Geens and Francesco Busatto were already an open secret in the peloton and are now official.

Four question marks have turned into certainties as Luca Vergallito, Henri Uhlig, Michael Gogl and Jensen Plowright have all renewed, which keeps an experienced core around Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen.

That stability matters because a large group of riders have left, sometimes with headlines about an exodus. Roodhooft chooses a different framing. “There was even talk of a mass departure, but in many ways it was a kind of natural selection,” he explains. 

“Some of the guys could improve their salary a lot, which they deserve. When teams come and take your riders, it is not always pleasant, but it confirms that we are doing something right and that we have brought people to a level we can be proud of.” 

Timo Kielich, for instance, moves on after nine years to Visma | Lease a Bike, something Roodhooft calls a logical step.

The wider market, with teams folding and riders suddenly available, did not drag Alpecin-Premier Tech into a bidding war. “We did not really let ourselves be guided by that situation,” Roodhooft says. 

“We were cautious, like other years. First, we let things play out, then we looked at how we could bring in the quality we felt we needed in a healthy economic way.” 

That logic also underpinned the search for a new sponsor. “We wanted to be competitive this year and next year even without that agreement, and I think we can be with this squad. Now that Premier Tech has come in, the situation is a little looser, and we can maybe do some things that speed up the process and create room for extra sporting projects in the wind tunnel or whatever.”

If the outgoing names suggest a step back, the internal view is the opposite. There is belief that the front block of the team can be even stronger, especially in the one-day races that define the identity of the squad. 

“Someone like Del Grosso is the kind of talent we have not had at that age for a long time, I think,” Roodhooft says. “If we can get everyone to their best level, we can build a stronger front group than before. In races like Waregem, those guys have to be able to leave their mark and race for the win at the right moment.”

The bar is brutally high after a run of dominant years in the cobbled classics. “We have put together an incredible streak in some races, and everyone agrees on that,” Roodhooft reflects. 

The ambition, he insists, is not simply to defend old results. “We want to write a bit of history.”

That desire sits in a landscape where winning gets harder every season. “There are races where you know you do not go to the start to win, everyone knows that,” he says. “If Tadej Pogačar is on the start line, it is often very difficult. Mathieu van der Poel is really the only one who can answer him when Pogačar is at his best.”