"Does Jurgen Foré really know who I am?" - Departing Quick-Step rider questions management after surprise exit

After more than a decade of service with Soudal - Quick-Step, Pieter Serry is being shown the door — and he’s not hiding his disappointment.

In a candid interview with Het Nieuwsblad, the 36-year-old Belgian didn’t hold back in questioning the decision-making at the heart of the team he’s called home since 2013. At the centre of his frustration: team boss Jurgen Fore.

“I ask myself: does Jurgen really know who I am?” Serry said. “I mean, I haven’t really had the chance to prove myself this year. That’s already difficult when you’re a domestique. But it’s like my whole season just slipped away without anyone truly seeing what I was doing.”

Rumours of Serry’s departure had been circulating since the Ardennes Classics, but when confirmation finally came, it hit hard. For a rider who has spent over a decade playing the loyal lieutenant — most often doing the unseen work in support of team leaders — the news came as a shock. “Jurgen was afraid of the dreaded ‘one season too many’,” Serry acknowledged. “And fair enough — I’ll be 37 in November. But still, I had to swallow hard – twice.”

It’s not just the timing that stung, but the manner in which the decision seemed to contradict earlier assurances. Only last winter, Serry says, team coaches were telling him he had years left at the top. “They said: ‘You’ve still got time, we know you take care of yourself.’ And I do — I’ve followed every training schedule to the letter. Just last year, I was still in the (pre-)selection for the Tour de France.”

While his name rarely made the headlines, Serry has been a constant, reliable presence within Quick-Step’s vaunted Wolfpack. His performances rarely grabbed the spotlight, but within the peloton, his work rate and professionalism were widely respected.

Still, in a results-driven sport, opportunities to shine are few and far between for riders in his role. Serry referenced this year’s Strade Bianche as a case in point: “After 100 kilometres, I gave my bike to Mattia Cattaneo. He was named leader that morning, so I did what was asked. But of course, that meant my race was over. That’s how it goes when you’re a helper — your work’s often invisible.”

His season had been built around the Giro d’Italia, but those plans fell apart unexpectedly. “I’d done a high-altitude training camp to prepare, but when I got back after three weeks in the mountains, I was told they’d chosen someone else. I thought: ‘Wait, what?’ Then came the bad news about my contract. At that point, I knew I wasn’t going to the Tour either.”

The rationale behind his departure? Serry says he was given little in the way of concrete explanations. “Do you really drop off that much in a single year? I asked: ‘Where did I fall short?’ But I never got a real answer.”

Health was mentioned — a somewhat ironic justification, given Serry’s long track record of comebacks from serious injuries. “It’s true, your body takes a beating after 15 years as a pro. I’ve had heat stroke, broken both collarbones and a vertebra in my neck. Last year I got hit by a car while training and ended up with double vision. But I always recovered fully — often surprisingly fast. I’m almost 37, yes, but I don’t have problems with my back or knees. I’m fit.”

Even as he fought to stay sharp mid-season, tragedy struck again. The death of his grandfather just before the Belgian Championships meant yet another missed opportunity to show his worth. “It’s all gone strangely this season,” he reflects. “Cycling can be a brutal world sometimes.”

Serry’s departure marks the end of one of the longest-serving careers within Quick-Step’s modern era — and for many fans and insiders, it’s hard not to feel that his story highlights a wider issue in professional cycling: the undervaluing of those who give everything but rarely stand atop the podium.