Soudal Quick-Step target untapped potential with new transfer strategy

Tim Torn Teutenberg and Lorenzo Milesi will both join Soudal Quick-Step next season, but there is one notable thing missing from their résumés: neither has won a professional race.

For a team with ambitions at the highest level, that might seem an unusual place to start. Foré sees it differently.

“They are both huge talents,” the Soudal Quick-Step CEO told Het Nieuwsblad. “They won a lot at youth level and have already gained experience in the WorldTour. Those are exactly the types of riders we are looking for.”

Rather than focusing only on riders who have already proven they can win, Soudal Quick-Step are increasingly trying to identify those who still have another step to make.

The Belgian team has put particular emphasis on riders between 23 and 30, an age range where enough evidence exists to judge their level, while there can still be significant room for development.

Teutenberg, 24, arrives from Lidl-Trek and brings speed, but Soudal Quick-Step do not necessarily see him developing into a conventional bunch sprinter.

“Tim Torn is very fast,” Foré explained. “He is not the type of rider Merlier or Meeus is, but he has the ambition to be there in the final of the Classics and eventually win one himself.”

Milesi, also 24, joins from Movistar with a different profile. The Italian has shown ability on punchier terrain and against the clock, having won the under-23 world time trial title earlier in his career.

Foré believes that combination could eventually make him a contender in shorter stage races.

Results are only one part of Soudal Quick-Step’s recruitment process.

Foré says he speaks with around 50 to 60 riders each year before the team reduces that group to a much shorter list of realistic targets.

Training history is among the information used to determine how much improvement a rider might still have left.

“A young rider who is already training like a 30 year old professional often does not have that much margin anymore,” Foré said. “With Tim Torn and Lorenzo, we saw there was still room to grow.”

It is a recruitment model based as much on what a rider might become as what he has already done.

That does not mean young riders with relatively modest palmarès are easy to sign. Teams across the WorldTour now have access to increasingly detailed performance data, making emerging talent difficult to hide.

Foré is quick to dismiss the idea that Soudal Quick-Step have simply found two inexpensive opportunities.

“Other teams see those things too,” he said. “Those riders come with a price tag. It is not as though they were bargains.”

Soudal Quick-Step may not be finished in the market either.

Foré revealed that the team is still working on another addition from a rival WorldTour squad, again fitting the age profile that has become central to its recruitment strategy.

“There is still one name in the pipeline who would be coming from another WorldTour team,” he said. “It is another rider who falls into that 23 to 30 age category.”

Ben Turner has been linked with a move from Netcompany Ineos to Soudal Quick-Step, although Foré stopped short of confirming whether the British rider is the name in question.

Whether Turner is that final piece remains to be seen, but Soudal Quick-Step’s direction in the market is becoming increasingly clear.