"Without Remco we'll return to our roots... Some riders will blossom" - Evenepoel's departure could be massive positive for Quick-Step according to Ilan van Wilder

As Remco Evenepoel prepares to leave Soudal - Quick-Step for Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe at the end of the 2025 season, many see a void emerging at the heart of his soon to be former team. But Ilan Van Wilder — one of Evenepoel’s most trusted lieutenants over the past few seasons — believes this seismic shift could actually be a turning point. For the better.

“Some riders will blossom,” Van Wilder told HLN ahead of his upcoming return to racing in Germany at the 2025 Deutschland Tour this week. “Hopefully I’ll be one of them.”

While the Belgian superteam braces for life without their marquee GC star, Van Wilder is among those already eyeing a more open team structure as an opportunity — not a setback. “I’m confident we’ll keep performing strongly as a team – even without Remco,” he said. “It’ll just be a bit different to how it’s been in recent years. We’ll return to our roots, focusing more on our strength in depth and the real ‘Wolfpack spirit’.”

According to Van Wilder, the focus on Evenepoel in recent seasons — though justified — has naturally diluted the broader tactical flexibility that once defined Quick-Step’s DNA. “It’s not that we completely lost that spirit, but it had faded a little,” he admitted. “That’s normal when you build a team around one specific leader. All roles and responsibilities get defined around him. Now, things will be more open. Some guys are going to grow. They’ll step up. I hope I’m one of them.”

Van Wilder, now 25, has quietly built an impressive résumé while riding in Evenepoel’s shadow. A key support rider in Evenepoel’s 2022 Vuelta a Espana win — a race Van Wilder still cites as “the highlight” of his career — he’s also proven himself more than capable when given the reins.

His breakthrough came at the 2023 Deutschland Tour, where he claimed both a stage victory and the overall classification. He added the Tre Valli Varesine weeks later and has since posted top-fives and top-tens consistently in WorldTour-level races. More recently, during the 2025 Tour de France, he finished fourth atop Mont Ventoux after helping teammate Valentin Paret-Peintre secure a dramatic stage win.

“That wasn’t a ‘boost’, exactly,” Van Wilder said of that Tour performance. “More of a confirmation of the strong season I’ve been having.”

While rumours had linked him with moves to other teams, Van Wilder opted to sign a three-year extension with Soudal - Quick-Step — a decision he insists was made with full conviction. “I wouldn’t have re-signed if I wasn’t sure. I’m happy here. And I can keep developing without contract stress. Now that Remco’s leaving, that process might even accelerate. Maybe this is exactly what I need — to step out of my comfort zone.”

From 2026 onward, Van Wilder expects to have more consistent opportunities to ride for himself throughout the season. No longer a designated domestique for Evenepoel, his ambitions are set to grow. “So far, I’ve combined supporting Remco with the occasional chance for myself. And in most of those cases, I delivered: top-five, top-ten results — often just below the level of the ‘Big Three’. But from next year, it’ll be different. I’ll have more freedom. I want to keep growing and maybe, one day, aim for a Grand Tour of my own.”

With Evenepoel's exit confirmed, and no direct replacement yet lined up, the team is widely expected to pivot back to a more collective racing style — the very approach that earned Quick-Step its nickname The Wolfpack.

Van Wilder’s vision of a team driven by depth, instinct, and aggression rather than a single leader mirrors the Quick-Step of old: classics-hardened, unpredictable, and always in the mix. “I really believe we’ll do well, collectively,” he said. “It’ll be different, yes, but in a good way. I think we’re going back to what made us strong in the first place.”

Evenepoel’s departure might have sent shockwaves through the Belgian cycling landscape, but for Ilan Van Wilder, it’s not an ending — it’s the start of something bigger. “I’m just doing my thing,” he shrugged. “And I think now, more than ever, it’s time to see what I can really do.”