It's still relatively quiet when it comes to announcing transfers in the cycling world. But one has dominated the news for over a week now: the mid-season transfer that Remco Evenepoel is making from Soudal-Quick-Step to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. The transfer was also discussed in the podcast The Move+ by Lance Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel, where the Belgian shared his perspective.
"I definitely think it's a good move for him," says Bruyneel. "This is the fresh start and environment he needed. If he wanted to take an extra step forward, he had to change teams. Although Soudal-Quick-Step fulfilled 95 percent of his wishes, the initiative always had to come from Remco himself. That will be the big difference at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. They have the infrastructure, manpower, and money to think for him."
Still, we shouldn’t expect miracles from Evenepoel with the German squad, Bruyneel believes. "No matter which team Remco rides for, he will never win the Tour de France against Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard. It's as simple as that. Actually, you have to disregard the Tour. It could be different if Pogačar once doesn't start, but Remco has never really come close to Vingegaard, not even last year when Jonas wasn’t at one hundred percent.”
The former team manager of US Postal does think the German team made a strong move by signing Evenepoel, as it has long been Ralph Denk’s ambition to have another rider in the world top 5 after Peter Sagan. "After Pogačar and Vingegaard, there’s a small group of riders and Evenepoel belongs to that group. We shouldn’t forget that he was third in the Tour last year, has already won the Vuelta a España, and is a multiple Olympic and world champion... From that caliber, he was the only rider available on the market."
