“They will be shocked by how much pressure Remco took away” – Expert claims Quick-Step could be set for rude awakening as post-Evenepoel era begins

For years, Soudal - Quick-Step did not just build around Remco Evenepoel. They leaned on him.

Not only for wins, but for protection. From expectation. From pressure. From the constant weight that sits on a Belgian team expected to win big races every spring and every summer.

Now he is gone, and that shield has gone with him.

Speaking in conversation with Sporza’s Vive le Velo at the Velofollies cycling fair, former pro and analyst Jan Bakelants suggested that Quick-Step may only now begin to understand what Evenepoel really carried for them. “I think they at Soudal - Quick-Step will be very shocked by what a tall tree Evenepoel was and how much pressure he took away from everyone there,” he said.

It is not just a comment about leadership. It is a warning about exposure.

For Quick-Step, Evenepoel became more than a star rider. He became the structure. Grand Tour ambition, media focus, long-term planning and commercial weight all flowed through him.

As revealed recently by CEO Jurgen Fore, even the transfer strategy was shaped by the assumption that Remco would stay. “Most of the transfers we made were done assuming Remco would stay,” Fore told HLN, later adding that Filippo Zana and Alberto Dainese were only added after his decision to leave.

That matters. It means Quick-Step were not gradually preparing for life after Evenepoel. They were still planning life with him.

When the exit finally came, Fore described it cleanly. “Remco made the choice to leave and we respected that under certain conditions. There is nothing more to say about that. We are now starting an era without Remco.”

But starting an era without Remco is not just about replacing results. It is about replacing gravity.

Bakelants read that same interview and drew his own conclusion. “From that, I concluded that it was also finished within the team,” he said. “It was not a marriage where people were still working hard for each other. It will work both ways.”

That line hints at fatigue on both sides. But his sharper point is about what comes next.

With Evenepoel in the team, pressure had a single direction. Everything flowed towards one rider who could handle it. Tour ambitions, world titles, Belgian expectations, sponsor visibility. It all sat on his shoulders.

Without him, that pressure does not disappear. It spreads.

Suddenly it sits on multiple riders. On new leaders. On management. On a team that has to prove it can still win big without its biggest name.

Bakelants believes that reality will bite. Not because Quick-Step lack talent, but because they may not yet realise how much Evenepoel absorbed. His phrase is brutal in its simplicity. They will be shocked.

One of the first names to face that comparison is Jasper Stuyven. But Bakelants was careful not to sell him as a saviour. “He will have to absorb something, but I think Jasper has mainly made the deal of his life for himself,” he said. “He took his exit from Lidl-Trek at the right moment, but I do not know if he is the messiah who will carry the whole team.”

That is not a criticism of Stuyven. It is a reminder of scale. Evenepoel was not just a rider. He was a system.

Quick-Step’s management insists ambition has not died with his exit. Fore has already said, “Why shouldn’t we be able to win Liege? Or the Amstel? Our spring is successful if we are prominently present, competitive for the win, and take an important victory.”

But ambition and protection are not the same thing.

Winning without Remco is one challenge. Doing it while learning how exposed you really are is another.

For years, Quick-Step stood in the shade of a very tall tree. Now they are standing in the open. And as Bakelants warned in conversation with Sporza, only now might they discover how heavy the weather really is.