Johan Bruyneel explodes against 'complete bullsh*t' Remco Evenepoel rumour - "I don't know anybody in their right mind who would pay 10 million to a rider"
Cycling
Remco Evenepoel could be termed cycling's second best rider at the moment - a double Olympic Champion, reigning time-trial Champion, Tour de France podium and much more at 24 - but paying €10 million per season is impossible for pundit Johan Bruyneel. Aside from discussing the possible Giro-Tourr double for the Belgian, Bruyneel completely dismissed the rumour of a multi-million euro transfer to Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe.
"I think there's a hint. He said that he wants to get back to the feeling of being a Grand Tour winner... There are certain reports that he might be considering the Giro and the Tour. Makes sense, he already won the Vuelta, so the Giro, he could win if it's a course ok for him," Bruyneel said of the Soudal - Quick-Step rider in The Move podcast. "he also said that he'll never sacrifice Liège-Bastogne-Liège. So Liège and the Giro is perfectly doable".
Over the past years, Evenepoel and Pogacar put in a great deal of focus in 'La Doyenne' and have won it, dominantly. Pogacar this year also rode to an extraordinary Giro-Tour double which in Bruyneel's opinion is now also a possibility for the Belgian. "The course of the Tour, the absence of a super long time-trial is probably not in his favour, he's going to go back to the Tour trying to be on the podium again I think that's logical, that would be a logical evolution for him..."
"But the guy's a winner, and being third in the Tour is not what Remco Evenepoel is riding is bike for. He's riding his bike to win. In that point of view I think the Giro would be perfect for him," he argues. Spencer Martin agrees:
"Pogacar showed that it's not disqualifying, there's five weeks between the Giro and the Tour... That's a decent amount of time, Pogacar showed us that if you're good enough, the Giro can just be a training camp. The thing I would worry about is crashes and weather".
However Evenepoel also recently hit headlines due to an alleged offer from Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe that featured a €10 million euro contract, DS Klaas Lodewyck and three support riders. It came from Michel Wuyts in a report for Het Laatste Nieuws but Bruyneel does not believe at all in the veracity of this report and has gone off on his fellow compatriot:
"When I saw that I said 'this is complete bullshit'... First of all the guy who came with this rumour is an old guy, he's been one of the main TV commentators in the past, he's been put on the side and tries to make noise to stay relevant: It's Michel Wuyts. In Belgium we call him 'the self declared pope of cycling'," Bruyneel said. The two have agreed that this number does not actually come from a factual assessment of the situation, but instead of a misinterpretation from the former commentator.
"He came out with that column and spoke about 10 million. There's no way Evenepoel would walk away from a 10 million contract in the first place, secondly I don't know anybody in their right mind who would pay 10 million to a rider. If Pogacar makes 8.5 and he's the best rider by far, there's no way".
Martin argued that the offer would've been of €5 million a season for two years, but this was reported incorrectly: "Someone probably told him 10 million, he's forgetting the duration part of that, so 10 million over a number of years. It looked like it was two years".
So many posting and login problems since the new interface. In my website creating days the rule was you do testing on many devices with all sorts of OS and browsers before going live. Today, it seems mire like, let readers do the testing and send feedback, it’s free.
Wouldn’t be the first time someone do completely misrepresented data by assumption. There was a time when media people took a little pride in checking stuff before publishing but I think apart from a few very dedicated individuals that habit is dead, there is no more risk to publishing fake or bad facts or just getting things wrong, if fact it seems more and more like this makes you popular
He was well on his way to winning the '23 Giro before he contracted covid. He can win any GT that Jonas and Tadej are not racing. He may show better against Jonas in '25 than anyone would ever believe right now.
Was he? On the first half decent climb of the race he lost 15s. The fact is that he didn't look convincing
that i think was the covid manifesting. Even in the TT he barely won
Possibly, but saying that he was well on his way to winning is a massive overstatement
He had the VID man. Yes, he was well on his way to winning the Giro.
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- Yes, I get that but it wasn’t exactly a good comparison if you ask me, circumstances and competition were very different. Also crashing whilst staying up front is pretty different from crashing and being left behind.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Pidcock was riding at a hard enough pace until the sector where Pogacar made up something like 20 seconds in something like... 20 seconds. Pidcock was quite a bit ahead, and suddenly he wasn't. At that point, clearly he would get caught, so might as well get caught sooner and work together. That's just good cycling. (I think the point is, plenty of people win even after they've come down in a crash - Van der Poel crashed at the worlds and won, anyway, for example).RidesHills08-04-2025
- Great sprint, Ineos set him up at exactly the right time, they protected the corners through the turns, and he did the job he was supposed to do. Nice to see him win again.RidesHills08-04-2025
- When Vingo, Rogla, and Wout were all at the height of their powers, a sight to behold.mobk08-04-2025
- To quote the article: riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike. Not coolmij08-04-2025
- I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.mij08-04-2025
- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025