"We want to take over your team" - Patrick Lefevere shares how Wolfpack turned down merger proposals

It was with heavy heart that Patrick Lefevere watched Soudal - Quick-Step struggle through this spring. Wolfpack didn't even slip into top-25 at the first four Monuments of the season, let alone to compete for prizes.

"I'm going to try to tell it, without offending anyone. But it wasn't good," says Lefevere on the podcast Vals Plat. "The results are better than the team rode. Tim saved the team a bit with seven victories, and a very promising Frenchman comes second at Omloop het Nieuwsblad," he refers to Paul Magnier.  

"But then there are three Monuments, with Flanders, Roubaix and Liège. There it was a crying shame." Remco Evenepoel seemed to be the right man for the job at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but he was a huge disappointment. "I think the first one came 36th (Vansevenant, 35th, ed.) or something. In the Tour of Flanders Lampaert came 28th (38th, ed.). And Paris-Roubaix was even worse (Lampaert came 28th there, ed.). It is what it is, I have seen it with regret."

Evenepoel saved the spring somewhat with the victory in the Brabantse Pijl and his performances in the Amstel Gold Race. But can the superstar be kept by Soudal Quick-Step? "Only God knows," laughs his old boss. "In any case, the intention of the team is to give him the full term of his contract. Of course, he has been harassed for four years, by almost everyone. Sometimes I find that very difficult."

INEOS Grenadiers and Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe have shown interest in the Olympic champion in the past, and the latter team backed by Austrian bevergaes giant put a lot of pressure on Lefevere. He shares an anecdote about a meeting with the German. "That bastard from BORA, I have no other name for him, Ralph Denk: we were in the Sheraton (conference location at Schiphol, ed.), in the big hall. The two of us, without drinks, without anything."

The conversation went strangely, and Denk remained vague about his intentions. "I said: 'what do you actually want?' 'We want to take over your team', was the answer. Do you think I will come and work for you? In the end, the moral of the story was: I had been with Remco for too long."

Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe really wanted to take over Evenepoel. They even approached Evenepoel, without Lefevere's knowledge. "In February, there was a thick proposal on the desk of father Evenepoel. That came to me. I flew to Tenerife and showed it to Remco. He told me: 'I didn't see it', threw it in the bin and gave me a hug." Clear language from Evenepoel.