Pretty cool breakdown of the current situation here, shamefully I'll cut and paste most of it:
>>The world of professional cycling was thrown into disarray last week with reports that a merger between two of the sport’s top teams, Jumbo-Visma and Soudal Quick-Step, is imminent and will be in place before the 2024 season, and that Jumbo-Visma star Primož Roglič will announce his intention to move to a new team for the 2024 in the coming days, with Ineos, Israel – Premier Tech, Lidl-Trek, Bahrain Victorious and Movistar rumored as the leading potential landing spots. Spencer Martin gives us his breakdown on the big merger story.
Due to the fact Jumbo-Visma is coming off the most successful season by any team in modern cycling, has a collection of the sport’s best riders in Wout van Aert, Jonas Vingegaard, and Primož Roglič (plus recent Vuelta winner Sepp Kuss), and the Belgian Soudal-QuickStep team has the young superstar Remco Evenepoel, and has been a rival of the Dutch Jumbo-Visma teams throughout the years, this was extremely shocking news, and is shaping up one of the biggest bombshells in a long while.
- Adding more layers to the chaos, rumors emerge and later shot down, that Amazon has signed on to sponsor the newly combined Jumbo-Visma/Soudal-QuickStep for the 2024 season (newer reporting suggests Amazon will simply be paying Jumbo €15 million for exclusive footage to air on their Prime Video service).
The barrage of news has been confusing and disorienting for even the most plugged-in viewers, so let’s take a step back to review how and why this rumored merger would happen and where it could leave some of the sport’s biggest stars.
Why Would This Happen?
Jumbo-Visma’s potential reasons for merging
- It may be jarring to see Jumbo-Visma, the sport’s most successful team (potentially in the history of the sport), coming off an absurdly strong season where they swept every grand tour with different riders and put three riders on the Vuelta podium, merging with Soudal-QuickStep, a clunky program in transition that houses one of Jumbo’s biggest rivals in Remco Evenepoel.
- But, if we look past the sporting success, Jumbo-Visma’s foundations aren’t as solid as expected. Jumbo, the team’s title sponsor (and founding member), is stepping back from the title sponsorship role at the end of 2023, likely due to multiple issues at the company, and it isn’t clear if Visma, their secondary sponsor, will continue after this season.
- While reports have suggested Jumbo will continue to be involved with the team in some capacity going forward, it appears to be in a reduced financial role, with Dutch cycling insider Raymond Kerckhoffs speculating that they will spread their remaining commitment over the next three years (working out to roughly €8.3 million per year).
- In short, Jumbo-Visma needs cash and needs it fast.
Soudal-QuickStep’s potential reasons for merging
- Meanwhile, Soudal-QuickStep, which has title sponsor Soudal locked down until 2027, has a superstar young rider, Remco Evenepoel, but a fast-aging and declining core of riders, and a 68-year-old general manager in Patrick Lefevere, who, for years, has held the program together with sheer force of will and personal relationship with sponsors, but will soon be looking to take a step back from the day-to-day operations.
- This leaves team majority owner Zdeněk Bakala facing the prospect of being forced to either take on the role of finding sponsors after Lefevere steps away, fund the team himself, or shut the program down to avoid consistently personally spending $30-$40 million per year servicing Evenepoel’s grand tour ambitions.
- In short, the easiest path forward for Soudal-QuickStep is to find a strong program to merge with that has a grand tour infrastructure in place and a younger manager willing to take on the responsibility of running the team day-to-day at a world-class level.
- The fact that they could get all of this, plus the sport’s top grand tour talent in Jonas Vingegaard and a Belgian superstar in Wout van Aert, must make the prospect of a merger incredibly appealing.
For example, with Primož Roglič already looking to leave the team after the Vuelta a España to assume a leadership role for next year’s Tour de France on a new team, he will have certainly bolted for the door upon hearing the news that he could be teammates with Remco Evenepoel in 2024.
- With Movistar, Ineos, Lidl-Trek, and Israel-Premier Tech all currently vying for Roglič’s services for next year, Jumbo is asking for, and will likely get, the total amount of the two years remaining on his contract (which, at a conservative estimate would be €2.5 million per year), as compensation for him leaving.
- Considering Ineos currently only has, by my count, 16 riders under contract for 2024, is in dire need of a legitimate Tour de France contender, has plenty of room to bring on a contender plus any preferred domestiques, and has by far the biggest budget in the sport, it is reasonable to assume Roglič (or Evenepoel) will land there.
The whole story is here, a decent read for anyone interested in grand tour cycling events.
PEZ Cycling; Deep Dive On Jumbo-Visma and Soudal Quickstep merger
