Surprise: Niki Terpstra Returns to Former Team

Niki Terpstra will return next year to his old team Soudal – Quick Step. The North Holland native will take on the role of team director in the sporting staff of the Belgian squad. This has been confirmed by multiple sources to WielerFlits. Terpstra’s arrival fits into the team’s transfer strategy for the coming years. With the addition of riders like Jasper Stuyven and Dylan van Baarle, the Belgian top team will focus more on the classics again.

Terpstra rode for Patrick Lefevere’s team from 2011 through 2018, the squad which has been led by Jurgen Foré since this year. During those eight years with the ‘Wolfpack’, Terpstra won classics such as the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, E3 Harelbeke, and twice Dwars door Vlaanderen. Within the team, Terpstra was known as one of the smarter riders, engaged with many aspects of racing. He was and still is a true equipment enthusiast.

In the final four years of his professional career, Terpstra raced for TotalEnergies but was unable to match the performances of his golden years with 'Quick Step'. After retiring from road racing, he has focused on gravel races over the past three years, while also deepening his knowledge of equipment. The now 41-year-old Terpstra needed those three years to put some distance from professional cycling and to consider where he saw challenges for the years ahead. His return to his old team as a team director will feel familiar to him.

Terpstra wins the Tour of Flanders 2018 - photo: Cor Vos

At Soudal – Quick Step, much will change following the recent departure of Remco Evenepoel. The team will return to its roots and focus more on collective racing to hunt victories in the classics and stage wins in stage races. The general classification ambitions will be scaled back.

In the team management staff, Klaas Lodewyck is leaving alongside Evenepoel to join Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe.