Bulldozer Lefevere slams Soudal–Quick Step and drops hint about Evenepoel: "That’s when you want to cash in"

First, let's look at the interview, as we want to know how Lefevere is doing now that he officially stepped down from his role in the peloton last winter. He was in the news on March 5 when he was admitted to the hospital. "A drop in blood pressure due to a lack of salt" is how he describes it now. He is now completely fine. "Blood pressure 13/7, pulse 62. I can start racing again right away, but I'm not going to start showing off too much; otherwise, I'll end up knocked out again," he jokes.

He was often spotted at races despite his retirement due to all the invitations from organizers. "What am I supposed to do? I wasn't there in Paris-Nice or at the Tirreno or Catalonia. I don't always go to the team hotel, only when they ask me to," he says because the contact has gradually faded. "Ten of the team have called me in the last few months, mostly the old guard, but no one else calls me spontaneously."

Of course, the interview also dealt with Soudal-Quick Step because Lefevere now has to watch The Wolfpack from the outside. "The results weren't too bad, but the team was worse than the results. That's not pleasant,” he says critically. ”It's still a bit my team. And you don't want to see your child when it's suffering. The Tour of Flanders and Roubaix were very poor... Merlier and Evenepoel kept us going."

Evenepoel won the Brabantse Pijl and played a leading role in the Ardennes, while Merlier has already won seven times this season. "Give Tim the lead-out train from Lidl-Trek, and he won't lose a sprint. Fortunately, Tim and Remco are there,” concludes Lefevere. However, Evenepoel has been under a lot of pressure in recent years. “Now I can speak freely. I was seriously annoyed; there are no standards anymore."

The Belgian veteran explains: "We pay 120,000 euros a year for our WorldTour license. That comes with rules and strict laws about when you can make an offer to a rider under contract, but everyone ignores them, and no one is fined." He is referring to Denk and BORA, and Lefevere's protests were to no avail. "Denk emailed Evenepoel's father with BORA's letterhead. He completely lost his mind. Who the fuck is the UCI? I know they're happy I'm gone."

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In his column in Het Nieuwsblad, Lefevere is not much more positive about Soudal-Quick Step. "It was one of the issues I emphasized every spring: the evaluation of the classics should be done after Liège-Bastogne-Liège. True to my rule, today you will get my honest opinion about the spring of Soudal Quick-Step. To put it kindly, I was left wanting more. (...) In the top classics, the team performed well below par. In Milan-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Roubaix, and Liège, we didn't have anyone in the top 25."

This is not a good sign, especially now that Evenepoel and Merlier are not performing well. "The key question for me is: how can we do better in the major classics in the coming years? We have seventeen riders whose contracts expire, so there is room to rebuild the team. And then there is Evenepoel's contract, which runs until the end of 2026. Everyone wants to keep Remco on the team; our sponsors are very clear about that. But what if supply and demand are too far apart? Or if the other party doesn't want to extend the contract? Then you want to 'cash in' with a sale in the year before the contract expires, following the example of Lotto and Maxim Van Gils."