Merlier, Paret-Peintre and a new GC option: Soudal - Quick-Step announce their Tour de France '8'
Cycling
Soudal - Quick-Step have unveiled their lineup for the upcoming Tour de France. The Belgian team will back up Tim Merlier once again to fight for stage wins but have varied ambitions into the Grand Boucle - although the team is missing Mikel Landa.
The Basque rider will put his focus on the Vuelta a España after suffering a pelvis fracture in a crash during Itzulia Basque Country. However, the team will have a GC card to play in Ilan van Wilder, medalist at last year's time trial World Championships and a stage-racer by nature.
This will be the first time the Belgian takes on such role in a Grand Tour. “Ilan will be our guy for the general classification, but the plan is for him to take it day by day," team DS Tom Steels said in a press release. "We also have guys capable of going in the breakaways, but our main focus will be of course on the sprint stages".
To achieve this, the team will back up Tim Merlier, three-time stage winner at the Tour and a proven card to win sprints this year. His leadout men Bert van Lerberghe and Jasper Stuyven will prove crucial in this role; whilst Pascal Eenkhoorn and Dylan van Baarle should work also on breakaway chasing and breakaway attempts on specific days.
“Tim has as main goal to win a stage, and with the changes that were made in the points classification, he could also get involved in the fight for green," Steels confirms. "Especially as he has a strong team for the bunch sprints".
Tim Merlier will be Quick-Step's headliner at the 2026 Tour de France
After the team's success at the Giro d'Italia, where Paul Magnier was the ruler of the fight for the maglia ciclamino, the team could replicate that success with a career-first green jersey for Merlier - who will have the likes of Jasper Philipsen and Mads Pedersen as main rivals.
The lineup is completed by Louis Vervaeke, and lastly last year's winner at Mont Ventoux Valentin Paret-Peintre. The lightweight Frenchman has had a stellar season, and will look to win once again at the Tour, with an eye in the KOM jersey at the same time.
“I’m happy to be back at the start after my successful debut last year and I hope to get another stage victory, but it would be nice to fight also for the polka dot jersey. When possible, I will also try to help the team and give my best so that we can get as many victories as possible".
Read also
Soudal - Quick-Step for Tour de France 2026
| Riders |
| Valentin Paret-Peintre |
| Tim Merlier |
| Pascal Eenkhoorn |
| Jasper Stuyven |
| Dylan van Baarle |
| Bert van Lerberghe |
| Ilan van Wilder |
| Louis Vervaeke |
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A founding contributor to CyclingUpToDate since its launch in January 2022, Ruben Silva has played a central role in shaping the site’s editorial direction and long-term growth. Before joining the project, he built his experience through independent blogging at Echelons Hub and by producing race previews for Ciclismo Internacional, developing a strong analytical voice rooted in daily engagement with professional cycling.
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- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- What a travesty ! That little deviation did nothing to impede Brand !frieders307-11-2026
- I also wanne beat Pogacar in the tour but it aint gonne happen. Jonas unfortunately getting dropped by del toro and seixas several times this TDF and jonas team is very weak and joinas on way down, it aint happening thats clear. its also clear it only happened cause Pogacar was hurt and had a broken wrist that time everytime both full strenght its not close we just have to be honest about it :/miguel07-11-2026
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- Looking at that photo she appears to be several feet from her. I’m not sure how that impeded brands sprint.mij07-11-2026
- Lucky to not get disqualified
leedorney07-11-2026
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