Despite conversations with Quick-Step and UAE Sven Vanthourenhout remains jobless: "I couldn't bring myself to sign the contract"

Following his departure from his role as head coach Belgian Cycling, a big move was expected for Sven Vanthourenhout. With 2025 drawing ever nearer though, announcement of a contract somewhere has not yet been revealed.

That's not to say there haven't been conversations though, including with Soudal - Quick-Step, the team of Remco Evenepoel, who Vanthourenhout helped guide to a historic double Olympic gold in Paris earlier this summer. "I went to Patrick Lefevere, and we talked. That is a bit mixed," he says on Stamcafé Koers, the podcast of Het Nieuwsblad. "It was an open conversation, as always, with Patrick. We talked about what had been and what was to come. Patrick asked me what I saw myself doing in his team. I explained it to him, and he listened. Afterward, he clarified that there was no budget to perform that role."

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The closest Vanthourenhout has come though, was with UAE Team Emirates. "In March 2023, before the World Championships in Glasgow, I had a long and good conversation with Mauro Gianetti and Joxean Matxin (General Manager and Sporting Director of UAE, ed.) at the Parkhotel in Waregem," he recalls. 

In fact, a proposal was even put on the table, ready for Vanthourenhout to sign. Ultimately though, that's not how things transpired. "I received the contract. But I couldn't bring myself to sign it at the time," he explains. "I was still in a race with guys like Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel toward Paris, which I had not yet completed. It didn't feel right then to throw in the towel and switch to what was a bit of the hostile camp anyway."

And so, Vanthourenhout remains on the lookout. Given his vast successes during his time as Belgian national coach, his reputation remains high in the peloton. Where he will ultimately end up though, remains to be seen.

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