👏 An absolute thriller of a finish in Felixstowe as Matevz Govekar times his sprint to perfection and takes stage victory! #TourOfBritain | @LloydsBank
Talk of Remco Evenepoel being imminently set to depart Soudal - Quick-Step are nothing new. According to the rumour mill, over the last few years the Belgian has been on the verge of signing for the INEOS Grenadiers and Team Visma | Lease a Bike. Now though, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe are reportedly coming calling.
After completing his first race since taking double Olympic gold at the 2024 Tour of Britain, Evenepoel was quizzed on the latest speculation regarding his future and whether or not that future will be alongside Patrick Lefevere and Soudal - Quick-Step.
"I don't know anything about that myself," Evenepoel said, shrugging off any speculation in conversation with Sporza from the Soudal - Quick-Step team bus. "So much always comes out without any truth in it. I have no idea what that would be about. I haven't seen anything myself. That I will normally still be riding for the same team next year? That's a yes, right?"
On the Tour of Britain, Evenepoel was relatively upbeat, having helped young teammate Paul Magnier to three stage wins in his role as domestique. "It was a matter of building up and getting back into it. I couldn't do more than that," he assesses, casting an eye towards the upcoming European Championships and World Championships. "I just have to improve everything and get better. Going on an altitude training camp is not an option. I will be training at sea level. I have to get the most out of it now and I have to take good care of myself. You can calculate so much and then fall. I just have to train hard and then build up some freshness for the time trial (September 22). Then I have one week left until the road race."
“It has been a good week for Remco,” added Soudal - Quick-Step's team manager Klaas Lodewyck. “We knew with what ambition we came here. We certainly shouldn't expect more than this. Leaving with a better feeling than when we came here, that was the goal. And we succeeded in that. It's not because he's not in the running for the classification that he couldn't do more. He's been of great value to the team every day. Here he got the incentives he needed to improve."
👏 An absolute thriller of a finish in Felixstowe as Matevz Govekar times his sprint to perfection and takes stage victory! #TourOfBritain | @LloydsBank