2025 season review | Soudal - Quick-Step: Merlier and Magnier thrive in the sprints; Whilst Remco Evenepoel seals final year with roller-coaster season

The 2025 season unfolded as a turbulent but defining chapter for Soudal – Quick-Step, closing the book on the Remco Evenepoel era while proving the team could still deliver wins at a level few squads could match. The Belgian outfit, long branded by its Wolfpack identity, entered the year without Patrick Lefevere for the first time. What followed was a storyline full of success, misfortune at the worst moments, and glimpses of where the team was headed once its golden boy moved on. Across the classics, Grand Tours, and the final months of racing, their year felt like a cycle of early frustrations followed by mid-season resurgence, punctuated by reminders that their traditional strengths were shifting.

For decades, Soudal – Quick-Step carved out its reputation through a deep roster geared mainly for the classics in the spring. Since 2019, and the emergence of Belgian superstar, that has changed.

Evenepoel, at 25, remained the focal point of their ambitions in stage races, particularly off of the back of double gold, a rainbow jersey, and a Tour de France podium in 2024. Supporting him in 2025 were veterans including the likes of Mikel Landa, Yves Lampaert (who added experience in the northern classics), and Casper Pedersen offered reliability on tough one-day terrain.

The sprint unit was reinforced through the arrival of Ethan Hayter, joining Tim Merlier to form a powerful fast-finishing duo. Younger riders like Ilan Van Wilder and Mauri Vansevenant continued to fill out the climbing and punchy roles. This blend of seasoned riders and developing talent arrived after an offseason that saw Julian Alaphilippe and Kasper Asgreen depart, leaving Quick-Step to recalibrate its identity in the punchy races.

The main goal? Repeat Evenepoel’s success from 2024. But, given the Belgian missed the first 4 months of the year due to his crash late last year, that would be easier said than done.

In terms of pure wins, Quick-Step enjoyed one of its most productive years in recent memory. The team finished 2025 with 54 victories, jumping up dramatically from 34 the season prior. Only UAE Team Emirates accumulated more wins, underscoring how frequently Quick-Step still crossed the line first.

Yet the broader metrics painted a more complicated picture. Despite the win tally, the team slid to 5th in the UCI WorldTour rankings after finishing 3rd in 2024. The numbers reflected a paradox: a team that could dominate the everyday calendar yet lacked prominence in some of the most important races of the year…

The spring months were a difficult stretch for a team long associated with classics excellence. Milano-Sanremo offered an early signal that something was off, with Casper Pedersen finishing 26th on a day when the front group was out of reach. The cobbled classics followed a similar script. In races where Quick-Step once dictated the tone, they instead found themselves on the margins. Yves Lampaert’s 38th at the Tour of Flanders and 28th at Paris–Roubaix marked the best placings the team could muster.

Long gone were the days of multiple riders in every decisive split. Instead, they were spectators to the battles between Alpecin–Deceuninck, Lidl-Trek and UAE. Races like E3 and Gent–Wevelgem kept them equally distant from contention, with the widely expected power of the Wolfpack nowhere to be found.

The Ardennes provided a chance for redemption, particularly with Evenepoel making his delayed season debut in April. He returned in emphatic fashion at Brabantse Pijl, beating Wout van Aert in a sprint, and narrowly lost to Pogacar and Skjelmose at Amstel Gold Race. But otherwise, the return didn’t produce the spark the team hoped for. Liège–Bastogne–Liège ended with Mauri Vansevenant as their best finisher in 35th, a far cry from Evenepoel’s Monument-winning heights of 2022 and 2023.

Without Julian Alaphilippe to animate the steep finales and with Evenepoel short of top fitness, Quick-Step lacked an explosive presence in the final climbs of Liege and La Flèche Wallonne. The spring became an accumulation of respectable efforts rather than breakthrough performances.

Still, the period wasn’t devoid of success. Tim Merlier added a valuable home victory at Scheldeprijs, giving the team a marquee sprint result. Younger riders such as Paul Magnier scored semi-classics that hinted at long-term renewal. But the major takeaway remained the same: Quick-Step’s grip on the big spring races had vanished, and their once-unshakable classics identity is no longer guaranteed. This reality shaped their approach moving into the Grand Tours.

The Giro d’Italia began with legitimate optimism around Mikel Landa’s leadership, and he represented a stable GC option. But that hope vanished abruptly on Stage 1 when Landa crashed heavily on a descent and was forced to abandon with a fractured vertebra. Losing the team’s leader on the opening day left Quick-Step with no clear path forward. Ethan Hayter delivered a solid ninth in the Stage 2 time trial, but stage victories proved elusive, and the race ended without a single win for the team. James Knox’s 19th overall provided a respectable effort but fell far short of podium ambitions. The Giro became a month of damage limitation rather than competition.

July offered a chance to reset through Evenepoel’s marquee goal. But was he truly ready in time to repeat the success of 12 months earlier?

The team centered its Tour lineup ‘mostly’ around him, with Tim Merlier included despite the potential tension between GC support and sprint ambitions. Early on, their approach seemed justified. Merlier stormed to a Stage 3 win into Dunkerque, extending the team’s long streak of Tour success. Evenepoel followed days later with a dominant time trial victory on Stage 5, placing himself firmly among the early favorites. Merlier doubled his tally with another win on Stage 9, with Evenepoel contributing to the lead-out. By the first rest day, Quick-Step had three stage wins, Evenepoel sat high on GC within striking distance of the yellow jersey, and the team appeared to be managing both goals at once.

It was all looking oh so promising.

But the Tour’s second week exposed the limits of their structure. A bruising series of Alpine stages cracked Evenepoel’s GC hopes, as his months of inactivity in the winter undid him cruelly. Unable to match the accelerations of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, he slid down the standings and eventually abandoned in the second week on the slopes of the Tourmalet.

It was a painful echo of the questions that had lingered around Quick-Step’s climbing depth for years. Rather than implode, the team adapted, and Stage 16 produced one of their finest moments of the year. Valentin Paret-Peintre surged from the breakaway to win atop Mont Ventoux, giving France a celebrated home victory and adding a fourth deep-Tour win to Quick-Step’s haul. But, in terms of GC, the team failed in their podium goals, and Merlier missed out on the green jersey behind Jonathan Milan.

With Evenepoel absent and Landa not yet ready to lead again, the Vuelta a Espana turned into a proving ground for emerging talent. Junior Lecerf, at just 22, took on leadership duties and excelled beyond expectations. Consistent climbing kept him hovering near the top 10, ultimately finishing 11th one of the standout young-GC performances of the year. But, the team did not manage to win a stage, and the absence of a defining leader and the dominance of rival squads limited their ceiling, although Lecerf’s rise offered a rare long-term positive.

The offseason confirmed the scale of the transformation ahead. The big news, albeit not so surprising news, was the confirmation that Remco Evenepoel would leave to join Red Bull – BORA – hangrohe for 2026, in search of more climbing resources to support him.#

Evenepoel’s departure to Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe removed the centerpiece of the team’s stage-racing ambitions. Long-serving domestiques Mattia Cattaneo, James Knox, and Pieter Serry moved on, ending an era of climbing support around Remco.

Quick-Step responded with targeted reinforcements. Jasper Stuyven and Dylan van Baarle arrived to restore classics depth, both bringing years of cobbled expertise. Alberto Dainese added versatility to the sprint train, complementing Merlier’s power.

2026 will be the start of the post Remco era, and judging by the transfers, the team wants to return to their classics core.

By the numbers, Soudal–Quick-Step produced one of the most successful calendars of 2025. Fifty-four wins, a powerful sprint program, and four Tour de France victories underlined their enduring competitiveness.

Tim Merlier’s speed and Paul Magnier’s breakout form demonstrated their continued ability to develop and refine winning riders. Yet the absence of meaningful results in the Monuments and the collapse of Evenepoel’s Tour GC bid highlighted the limitations of their structure during this transitional period. The season was ultimately defined by volume and flashes of excellence rather than dominance in the sport’s headline events.

An 8/10 feels an accurate reflection, a campaign full of achievement, tinged by the knowledge that their biggest ambitions slipped just out of reach. As Quick-Step steps into its first year without Evenepoel, the season leaves them with a clear sense of what must come next: a strengthened classics core, and a sprint train built around Tim Merlier.

For all the bigger storylines, I can’t escape the feeling that Tim Merlier is the fastest man in the world right now. Every time he’s in the right position, the result feels inevitable, and his Tour de France stages only reinforced that. On the other side, Remco’s Tour campaign never looked truly secure to me. The moment he crashed in December 2024, his whole preparation shifted from building toward victory to trying to recover in time, and that kind of setback always leaves a mark by July. But even with a compromised leader, injuries, Quick-Step still finished with a mountain of wins. That’s the part I always respect about them.

I can't really put any issue on Quick-Step you know? It feels like they've performed almost anywhere, and where they didn't it was because of bad luck, not because they couldn't. There is an obvious exception, which is the cobbled monuments. But let's be real starting the season the team didn't really have many hopes of performing there, and neither should we, they no longer have a leader or someone who can finish up high in there. Next year they will in Dylan van Baarle, Jasper Stuyven (who looked great this year) and a potentially stronger Paul Magnier, which may see a much better performance.

Quick-Step is a team that's turning to sprints and classics next year, but they've actually taken 54 wins this year, the second most winning team of the year. Tim Merlier was just spotless, winning virtually everywhere he went, incuding two stages at the Tour de France, Schedleprijs and multiple World Tour stages throughout the year. Paul Magnier was tested in the World Tour, raced well, and late in the year was placed in a 'farmer's calendar' which saw him net over a dozen wins in just a couple months. Sure not against the strongest competition, but winning a lot is what sprinters are for right? And it builds immense confidence and experience with his own personal leadout, which can pay off even further in 2026. The team adds Alberto Dainese as a third sprinter to capture stages throughout the year for 2026.

Ethan Hayter was turned into a time trial specialist and actually won very well int the second half of the year, even beating in a very underrated performance at the Baloise Belgium Tour. Mikel Landa was strong in March but his season was wrecked by the Giro crash. Honestly I thought his season was over there, he didn't win late in the year but his performances still added something to the team. Valentin Paret-Peintre didn't end up being the super domestique the team planned him out to be, but he won on Mont Ventoux and became a hero to the French, adding to the team's Tour de France success too...

Ilan van Wilder had another consistent season, but his third place at the time trial Worlds was genuinely a huge surprise and a pay off for the confidence put in him over the years. William Lecerf Junior also rode well, winning the Czech Tour, highlighting Vuelta breakaways with his Top10 pursuit, making him another good rider to capture attention and promise for the future (Top10's at UAE and Romandie too).

Then of course, Remco Evenepoel. Disaster struck in December, but he won De Brabantse Pijl right in his first day of racing in April, followed by a podium in an iconic Amstel Gold Race. Stage win in Romandie, and at the Dauphiné he was in the right place, winning the time trial and finishing high in GC. He also won the ITT at the Tour de France. His departure was sour for the team, but his end of the year run was stupendous.

If it wasn't for Tadej Pogacar, potentially historic and record-breaking. He won the time trial World Championships and Europeans which in itself is very good and impressive, with the overtake of Pogacar in Rwanda making for memorable scenes... But then he showed his very best level and finished second to the generation's best at the Worlds, Europeans and Il Lombardia. Not, they aren't wins, but they were Quick-Step showing its very best colours with a rider who remained committed despite knowing he'd leave the team at the end of the year.