"We are working on a future with and without Remco" - Quick-Step boss on Evenepoel rumours

The Tour de France is currently ongoing but although Remco Evenepoel has just won a stage and climbed to second in the overall classification, perhaps that is fully overshadowed by the rumours of a potential departure from Soudal - Quick-Step. Team boss Jurgen Foré has responded to the rumours this morning.

"He still has a contract until the end of 2026, and we assume he will honour," he said in the Vive le Veló show. It has been ongoing for a very long time already that both INEOS Grenadiers and Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe have been making a bid to sign the double Olympic Champion.

This has significantly intensified since the start of the Tour, as multiple annonimous sources have confided to journalist Daniel Benson and Escape Collective that a move to Red Bull could be imminent, and almost complete. This would be a bomb in the transfer market, specially as Evenepoel has an ongoing contract until 2026.

Evenepoel is a Vuelta a España winner and the best time-trialist in the modern peloton - as well as a multiple monument winner. This makes him priceless in the eyes of many, and despite his ongoing contract, it hasn't kept the biggest pockets of the peloton away - except for UAE, who have got their own leaders already.

Evenepoel's ambitions and desires to win the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia make this a move that could ultimately benefit both sites and makes it much more plausible, as despite the improvement, Soudal - Quick-Step continues to be no match to UAE Team Emirates - XRG and Team Visma | Lease a Bike.

Foré is insistent though that no transfer will happen this season. But in his words is also a clear idea that there is a very realistic possibility that if not in 2025, then in 2026 a departure could happen. "So he'll definitely be riding with us for another year. But in the longer term, we are working on a future with and without Remco."

It is a difficult situation for the Belgian team who in the past few years has attempted to build a solid block for the mountains surrounding the Belgian but now see him potentially leaving the team. "It is always so turbulent. To build something, you could use some stability."