Jumbo-Visma & Soudal - Quick Step: Mega merger of top teams probably cancelled
DPA
· 06.10.2023
The planned merger between the cycling teams Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-Quick Step has been cancelled. This was reported unanimously by several Belgian media.
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Amazon could therefore make up for the loss of the Dutch team's main sponsor Jumbo. The future of the Belgian Équipe Soudal - QuickStep is secured until at least 2025, but the future of time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel is unclear.
The merger of the two heavyweights, which in football is comparable to a merger between Liverpool FC and Manchester City, has been the dominant theme in cycling over the past two weeks. This year, Jumbo became the first team in history to win all three major national tours.
Jumbo withdraws
However, the main sponsor, a supermarket chain, had already announced months ago that it would withdraw by the end of 2024 at the latest. Soudal was long regarded as a classics team, but built up a team around young star Evenepoel, who is celebrated in Belgium as the new Eddy Merckx.
Significant impact on the transfer market
Many riders feared for their future in the course of the negotiations, as a team is only allowed to have a maximum of 30 professionals under contract. Together, Jumbo and Soudal would have had 50 riders under contract.
Almost the entire transfer market came to a standstill because other racing teams wanted to wait and see how things developed.
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