Stuyven on Evenepoel transfer - 'His departure frees up more space to pursue my own goals'

Asked whether he ever imagined riding alongside Evenepoel in 2026, Stuyven was clear in his response to Het Laatste Nieuws.

“Honestly: no. After what’s come out over the past three years about his contract situation, I never assumed Remco would be my teammate in 2026,” he said. “I never knew Jurgen [Foré’s] current status or vision regarding Remco, but I felt this year was the time for Remco to leave, and that’s how I approached it. I didn’t sign with Remco in mind, thinking it would be good or bad.”

The pair know each other well from the Belgian national team. They rode together at the 2022 World Championships and again at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where Evenepoel won gold and Stuyven celebrated alongside him. But Stuyven said he never truly expected that partnership to continue at team level.

“He joked about it during an altitude training camp in the Sierra Nevada in May, even though it wasn’t completely finalised yet. I didn’t respond to those jokes because I already thought: we’ll see if we actually become teammates,” Stuyven recalled. “I also heard from Remco on August 3, one year after his Olympic road race title. I had sent him a message myself, because it’s a fond memory for me too. Even then, his answers made clear that we wouldn’t be teammates.”

Stuyven’s decision also reflects the shifting hierarchy at Lidl-Trek.

“I could certainly have stayed, but Lidl-Trek had a different vision of my role. No longer as a leader in the cobbled Classics, because they want to put forward Mads Pedersen and Mathias Vacek, plus Jonathan Milan for Gent-Wevelgem,” Stuyven explained. “That was communicated very openly, and it was up to me to decide whether I wanted that new role. But they also understood that, given the last two Classics campaigns where I showed I can still be at the front, there would be teams willing to give me a leadership role.”

The rider from Leuven is also willing to take on a helper’s role. “I already do that in many races like the Tour, but in the spring I still want freedom, and I feel that is justified. Beating Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel is obviously difficult, but Mads Pedersen hasn’t managed it in the Monuments either,” Stuyven noted.

That desire for freedom is backed up by his results. A former Milan-Sanremo winner, he underlined this spring that he remains competitive, finishing fifth at the Tour of Flanders in the company of Mathieu van der Poel, Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen. “I don’t see myself as finished,” he said. “In the Classics I still want freedom, and I think I’ve shown in recent campaigns that I can be there in the final.”

After the cobbled season, Stuyven will turn his attention to the Grand Tours. At Lidl-Trek he became a reliable part of Jonathan Milan’s sprint train. In 2026, he will bring that experience to Soudal Quick-Step, where he is set to support Tim Merlier while also chasing his own opportunities.

“I enjoy doing that,” he said. “With Tim, you know you have a good chance of winning on the flat stages, and the hilly stages offer opportunities to pursue my own dream. Jurgen was happy that my ambitions were going beyond the spring campaign. He knows I want to win a Tour stage, and Remco’s departure frees up more space to pursue that.”

For Stuyven, the next chapter begins now. His farewell run with Lidl-Trek features, among others, the Renewi Tour, Bretagne Classic and Paris-Tours.

After that, all eyes turn to 2026 and to a Quick-Step team rediscovering its old identity, with Jasper Stuyven at the heart of it.