Soudal Quick-Step sees Evenepoel leave to Red Bull, so how sure is a successful 2026 for the team?

UAE recorded a crazy amount of wins this year, but behind Tadej Pogacar's team, Soudal Quick-Step was the most victorious formation. The Wolfpack had great outliers, but did it achieve its actual goal this year? We take a closer look at its first year without Patrick Lefevere at the wheel.

Catching a really big fish in the spring: that is what Soudal Quick-Step is looking for. It did not succeed this year, although it did manage to win a couple of one-day races. The Wolfpack however was not able to win a big classic.

Remco Evenepoel won the Brabantse Pijl, while Tim Merlier won the Scheldeprijs. There were also wins by Paul Magnier (Heistse Pijl, Elfstedenronde and GP de Fourmies) and Merlier (Brussels Cycling Classic, Dwars door het Hageland and Omloop van het Houtland).

In the big classics and Monuments, it wasn't for The Wolfpack. Evenepoel was second in Il Lombardia, Merlier was also second in Gent-Wevelgem and Magnier just missed out on the win in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. With Evenepoel's third place in the Amstel Gold Race and Magnier's third place in the ADAC Cyclassics, two more nice podiums were added, but in the very biggest classics it all fell just short.

In stage races, on the contrary, it all went pretty great. Not even so much in GC-terms, but in stage wins. For example, in an extremely successful Tour de France there were four wins, thanks to Merlier (twice), Evenepoel and Valentin Paret-Peintre. An exhausted Evenepoel had to leave the Tour, which was quite a disappointment.

With those four stage wins, we have pretty much named everything in the Grand Tours. Junior Lecerf's eleventh place in the Vuelta was all the team had to show this year. It was in the other stage races that the team managed to win. Win a lot, in fact.

Merlier won in the AlUla Tour (twice), UAE Tour (twice), Paris-Nice (twice) and Baloise Belgium Tour (twice), followed by two wins in the Renewi Tour. The Belgian sprinter won no less than sixteen times. Magnier even managed that nineteen times: only Pogacar won more with his twenty wins this year.

Especially in the fall, the French sprint bomb was extremely successful, with 14 victories in 18 race days. With other wins by Louis Vervaeke, Maximilian Schachmann, Ethan Hayter and Luke Lamperti, Soudal Quick-Step comes to no less than 54 wins, which is twenty more than a year earlier. A top season, in other words.

So 54 victories and only UAE does that better. Although there was no big win in the spring, Soudal Quick-Step put itself back on the map with many victories and podiums. An excellent season, with some room for improvement, which the (former) editors of In de Leiderstei rate with an 8.0.

CEO Jurgen Foré's team have lost Evenepoel, who signed a contract at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. A departure of the Belgian had been in the air for some time, but with that the team does lose its absolute leader. So what does the team do now? Well, not by getting a new leader for the GC-work.

How then? By going back to the core. Indeed, if you look at the incoming transfers, you will see that the Belgian formation has invested heavily for the classics. Dylan van Baarle, Laurenz Rex, Jasper Stuyven and Fabio Van den Bossche are the face of that. The team also attracted Alberto Dainese, Steff Cras and Filippo Zana, while it promotes Jonathan Vervenne from the devo-squad.

Indeed, in addition to Evenepoel, it had to deal with more departures. Lamperti opted for an adventure with EF, James Knox with Picnic PostNL and Mattia Cattaneo followed his leader to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. Pieter Serry and Jordi Warlop stopped their careers, while the future of Josef Cerny and Antoine Huby is still unclear.

Transfers in: Dylan van Baarle (Visma | Lease a Bike), Laurenz Rex (Intermarché-Wanty), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek), Fabio Van den Bossche (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Alberto Dainese (Tudor), Steff Cras (TotalEnergies), Filippo Zana (Jayco AlUla) and Jonathan Vervenne (in-house training team)

Transfers out: Remco Evenepoel, Mattia Cattaneo (both Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Luke Lamperti (EF Education-EasyPost), James Knox (Picnic PostNL), Pieter Serry and Jordi Warlop (both quit)

The new classic core is perhaps the most interesting thing to keep an eye on next year. With Pascal Eenkhoorn, Yves Lampaert, Dries Van Gestel and the recruited Van Baarle, Rex and Stuyven, The Wolfpack really looks to become one of the most dangerous spring teams again. In any case, the will is there.

Furthermore, it will be interesting to see if Magnier can take his insane autumn form into the new year, while for talents Vervenne and Martin Svrcek it is to be hoped that their great development continues. For the stage races, it now seems to really have to rely on Mikel Landa, although Lecerf may also be able to take on the leader's role in 2026.

So, based on its transfer policy, Soudal Quick-Step is once again changing things up, which can be called somewhat of a risk. Still, due to the strength of the already existing core and the versatility of the new riders, there is no need to worry too much. Catching a big fish early in the spring: The Wolfpack could build on it. At least it has the riders to do that.