Soudal-Quick Step 2026: New Era, Future Prospects

The divorce had hung like a dark cloud over the Wolfpack for several years and the break was sealed on August 5, 2025.

“In the interests of everyone, it is better to let Remco Evenepoel go,” it sounded diplomatic at the time at Soudal – Quick Step, but in recent months you have increasingly heard a backlash.

On both sides, let that be clear.

Oh well, transfers and business are part of the sport. With this deal, the Belgian cult team was able to prevent Evenepoel from walking away for free a year later, but the fact that the departure of their poster boy despite the financial compensation leaves a gigantic crater is putting it mildly.

Especially because the Belgian team had completely retrained according to Evenepoel’s genes and guidelines since its professional debut in 2019.

It has not done any harm to Soudal-Quick Step and it is not appropriate to completely throw the baby out with the bathwater.

With Ilan Van Wilder, Valentin Paret-Peintre and newcomer Steff Cras, among others, there are enough people ready in the corridors who can take a step forward, although the bar is inevitably set a lot lower.

With the expertise they have acquired, the blue climbers can certainly make another leap up the ladder, but realism must prevail.

Let it not be a shame.

On the one hand, the Tour stage to Mont Ventoux proved that such a vacuum can quickly provide relief, but from the shelter and without pressure, a ripe apple always falls from the tree a little faster.

In a sense, Van Wilder and co are given carte blanche, but the transfer policy of CEO Jurgen Foré proves that Soudal-Quick Step will take a different tack in 2026.

According to a well-known recipe, that is, because the classic DNA is brought back to life. From now on, breakfast will consist of cobblestones again.

Those who have to put together the classic selections no longer have to satisfy their hunger with cheese shavings, but are promptly presented with an entire cheese board.

Fighting spirit and internal competition à l’ancienne, it has been different in recent years.

New Jasper Stuyven signs in Dylan van Baarle were initially brought on board with a double agenda.

As winners of monuments and cobblestones, they are invaluable in the spring, but with their engine they would also have fit perfectly in the Tour team around Evenepoel.

The charm offensive with the fast riders was to no avail, meaning that Stuyven and Van Baarle will initially have to do their full best in the cobbled classics.

Their big advantage is that things cannot be worse than last year. The pitch-black spring of 2025 is a disgrace on Quick Step’s rich spring palmares, where Paul Magnier is the new diamond.

Stuyven and Van Baarle must take the Frenchman under their wings as teachers, although the armpit-fresh pet child will probably not take his first full examination period until 2027.

Paying Flemish education fees as a 21-year-old crown prince should not be ruled out next season for the French potential successor to Tom Boonen.

This team can build a house on Tim Merlier and with Laurenz Rex and Fabio Van den Bossche, among others, SQS wants to make the success recipe of yesteryear pay off again in 2026.

What does that taste like these days? If you don’t have a Galactico yourself, try to compete against the best of this platoon in blocks. In this way, the pressure also ends up on several shoulders.

Spoiler alert: what Soudal-Quick Step should not overlook is how different racing is in 2026 compared to the glory period of a few years ago.

The pearls of this platoon take matters into their own hands and do not allow themselves to be forced into the defensive by a strong collective.

Moreover, Stuyven and Van Baarle perhaps rely a little too much on that outlier that made their career complete. You can’t call them winners par excellence, Shadow Leader is a label that suits them better.

In any case, a touch of tactical ingenuity will be necessary for Soudal-Quick Step to be able to reconnect with its glorious past, which, however, is at odds with today’s wattage festival.

The return of Niki Terpstra and Tim Declercq and the happy arrival of Sep Vanmarcke certainly raise hopes for the best.

Blue blood flows through the veins of Terpstra and Declercq and Vanmarcke can breathe a breath of fresh air through the support car, where extra oxygen is supplied with the flow of Kevin Hulsmans, among others.

“I felt it on the team days: we have a team again,” Wilfried Peeters said in Het Nieuwsblad.

“Be careful: I don’t want to take anything away from Remco, because he is one of the best riders we have ever had. But a lap team is structured differently and is more individual.”

The sporting plan with a solid block is clear, but how much financial breathing space there is left in the tank without the Belgian lifeline par excellence is a lot less.

Quick Step already made it clear last summer that it would not say no to taking a step back and, according to the fanfare, serious questions are also being raised about Specialized’s commitment.

Will 2026 become another farewell year due to the aftershocks of the Evenepoel transfer?

This transition season will certainly be a new beginning, but will the updates to the outdated software be enough to allow the giant with feet of clay to flourish as usual next spring?