Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe won the bidding war for cycling’s most desired signature, but can Remco Evenepoel now topple the giants at the Tour de France and win the yellow jersey?
The stakes couldn’t be higher in cycling’s biggest mega-transfer in years.
For Evenepoel, it’s the ultimate challenge of his already glittering career.
For Red Bull, it’s an all-in gamble on a rider they believe can crack the Tour de France code.
The blockbuster deal — confirmed Tuesday and reportedly worth $9 million per season — instantly propels Evenepoel to the top of the peloton’s hierarchy alongside Tour kings Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard.
The expectations now are nothing less than dethroning them. No pressure there.
It’s still an open question if Evenepoel can level up and surpass Pogačar and Vingegaard in the quest for the yellow tunic.
Also read: All the details of the Evenepoel-Red Bull deal
And another tricky point: how much more support on the road will Evenepoel see from Red Bull than he didn’t have at Quick-Step?
Evenepoel leaves behind Soudal Quick-Step, where he ruled the “Wolfpack” but constantly pined for Tour-level support.
At Red Bull, he’ll finally get the Formula One-style backing that has become a prerequisite for modern Tour success, but could quickly find himself in a cauldron of egos, ambitions, and personal agendas.
These high-profile transfers are never as clear-cut and smooth as everyone might think.
Aging grand tour king Primož Roglič and rising star Florian Lipowitz are both expected to stay, and there could be too many cooks in Red Bull’s GC kitchen. Evenepoel will need to build new allies and alliances fast.
Fair or not, anything less than a Tour victory could be seen as a disappointment.
Will this mega-transfer be remembered as cycling’s savviest or one of its biggest flops? Let’s dive in:
Mutually beneficial arrangement
There’s no question that Evenepoel and Red Bull deserve each other.
At 25, Evenepoel is one of the peloton’s superstars and still has time on his side. With the arrival of energy drink giant Red Bull in 2024, Ralph Denk’s “Band of Brothers” is now the most ambitious team in the peloton.
Together, they hope to win the yellow jersey.
Red Bull gets the star that it desperately wanted. Despite a debilitating crash in December, Evenepoel is viewed by many as the only rider who can truly challenge the six-year yellow jersey stranglehold that Vingegaard and Pogačar have on the Tour.
He’s already checked off the two boxes that typically reveal Tour de France success — winning another grand tour with the 2022 Vuelta a España and finishing on the Tour podium with third in 2024.
On the right course, in the right conditions, and perhaps against an aging or absent Pogi or Vingo, Evenepoel could win the Tour within the next few years. (Eddy Merckx doesn’t think so).
@EvenepoelRemco to ride for #redbullborahansgrohe starting 2026
➡️ Read the full story here: https://t.co/BCn55Rd8zU pic.twitter.com/vhwrgONknl
— Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe (@RBH_ProCycling) August 5, 2025
So, reading those odds, Red Bull made the right bet.
Evenepoel, who turned pro with Quick-Step in 2019 to become one of the most successful and sometimes polarizing riders in the elite men’s peloton, will also see the back-room support he needs to try to elevate from being a contender to a yellow jersey winner.
Cycling today is so refined, so scientific, so data-driven that unless you have a Formula One-like operation behind you, any rider without that has almost no chance of winning.
The top WorldTour super teams today function more like aerospace programs than old-school cycling squads. Evenepoel will get that support and more.
Conclusion: Red Bull and Evenepoel both win in this deal.
Move over, let Remco take over
Red Bull cleaned house to make room for Remco and his entourage.
Out go performance manager Rolf Aldag and sports director Enrico Gasparotto. In comes Sven Vanthourenhout, the former Belgian national coach and one of Evenepoel’s most trusted confidants.
Also expected to join Evenepoel are favored sport director Klaas Lodewyck, soigneur David Geeroms, mechanic Dario Kloeck, and veteran road captain Mattia Cattaneo, who served as both teammate and personal chaperone at Quick-Step.
Belgian media have floated the idea of a “hostile takeover,” but this is standard operating procedure for marquee riders. When Alberto Contador left Astana, he brought his core staff to Saxo Bank. Peter Sagan did the same at Bora before the team pivoted from classics to grand tour hunters.
Specialized is already on board as bike sponsor, a crucial detail for equipment-obsessed Evenepoel, who has a long-term personal deal with the American brand.
Also read: All the latest on mergers, transfers, and deals for 2025-26
In the age of cycling superstars, entourages are part of the package.
And make no mistake, Red Bull is now Evenepoel’s team.
A big star who can deliver is always at the center of gravity, so everyone else will have to fall in line, adjust their ambitions, or find the door.
There will be endless complications of ruffled feathers and bruised egos that come with that, but that could be the least of the worries.
Of course, Evenepoel has to deliver on his end of the bargain as well.
Too many cooks in the GC kitchen?
In terms of back-room support, feeling comfortable (and well-paid), and being on a well-resourced team that is equally ambitious, Evenepoel and Red Bull are a match made in marginal-gains heaven.
Red Bull’s state-of-the-art performance center will give Evenepoel access to every cutting-edge toy in the sport he needs to level up.
Evenepoel is the consummate professional, and he will be entering the peak of his powers in the next few years, so the time was now to make the move.
In many ways, Evenepoel should have made this move last year.
Why? Because by staying at Quick-Step through 2025, Evenepoel essentially burned a season. The team wasn’t Tour-ready, and by the time he made the leap this week, the internal landscape at Red Bull had shifted dramatically.
Last year, star-signing Roglič was coming off crashing out of the Tour de France, and no one had even heard of Florian Lipowitz.
Remco Evenepoel Primoz Roglic Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have got a super-team for 2026 ✨ pic.twitter.com/yNUTooAr3y
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) August 5, 2025
Flash forward to 2025, and Lipowitz “filled” Evenepoel’s spot on the podium in Paris with third and the white jersey, and looks every inch a future Tour winner. And — least we forget — he’s German, just like CEO Denk, and lives close to Austria-based Red Bull.
And then there’s Roglič. Though he didn’t win a stage or seriously challenge for the podium, he still proved his magic by finishing eighth and winning the Vuelta last year.
Red Bull now faces the age-old problem of any cycling super team of how to keep three GC star riders aligned without burning down the house.
One likely solution is to send Lipowitz to the Giro d’Italia to win in 2026.
Team boss Denk will have the task to convince Roglič that he could play the super-domestic role for Evenepoel, and perhaps offer the carrot of having the freedom to chase a stage win at some point.
That would, at least on paper, keep everybody happy for one year.
But in the medium term, Lipowitz will want his chances. He’s already off contract, but the word is that he staying at Red Bull.
Roglič is also reportedly staying for at least one more year, and it’s never easy for a big champion to become someone else’s water carrier.
On paper, Red Bull zooms to the top of the super team hierarchy.
On the road, GC goals, podium dreams, and egos could splinter along personal ambitions.
How much more support?
But beyond those big names, what does Evenepoel gain in terms of luxury helpers who can survive deep into week three and pace him over the HC summits when it all kicks off at 2,000 meters?
That’s where things gets murky.
One of his grinding points at Quick Step was that he wasn’t getting the support he needed for the mountains.
Mikel Landa, his ace in the hole in 2024, crashed out and missed the Tour this year. The Quick-Step riders signed for 2025 — Max Schachmann and Valentin Paret-Peintre — were likely never going to be there for Evenepoel if he had stayed in the race. The team’s decision to take sprinter Tim Merlier only further annoyed Evenepoel.
At Red Bull, the entire structure will be built around his yellow jersey ambitions, but scroll down the roster, and who’s going to be there?
Jai Hindley, Finn Fisher-Black, Maxim Van Gils, Jan Tratnik and maybe Giulio Pellizzari if he’s ready for the big stage. Spanish talent Roger Adria is linked to Movistar.
They’re all big names, but right now, Red Bull is missing that Sepp Kuss or Adam Yates for Evenepoel. Denk could still sign a mega climber, but who’s available when Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Emirates-XRG have half the peloton’s top climbing domestiques under long-term contracts?
The irony is that it’s no guarantee that Evenepoel will have that final rider that he was missing at Quick-Step.
Of course, at the end of any major climb in the Tour de France, it’s all about who has the legs.
And in 2026, that pressure will fall squarely on Evenepoel.
With big money comes big expectations
And there’s the money.
Evenepoel will catapult to become one of the highest-paid riders in the peloton.
La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that the deal is worth 8 million euros per season (about $9 million). That’s more than the estimated 5.5 million euros Vingegaard is on, and on par with Pogačar’s salary (though one source told Velo the Slovenian could be earning more than 10 million euros per season).
With that comes pressure. Even since turning pro at 18, Evenepoel is the master of dealing with and even surpassing expectations.
Will things go off the rails at Red Bull? Almost certainly not.
Photos from the Remco Evenepoel signing day to Red Bull.
: cresta.thesportsfirm pic.twitter.com/UcKAU1XOdS
— Lukáš Ronald Lukács (@lucasaganronald) August 5, 2025
Will Red Bull help transform Evenepoel into a Tour de France winner? His odds are higher than if he had stayed at Quick-Step.
Evenepoel’s limitations and strong points won’t change. He’s the best time trialist right now, and he’s vulnerable in the highest, longest climbs. He can incrementally improve both, but even now, he’s better than everyone else not named Pogačar or Vingegaard.
The deal will make Red Bull a better team and Evenepoel a better rider. That’s a win-win, no matter the pricetag.
Will it be enough to topple the Pogačar-Vingegaard duopoly that has ruled the Tour for six straight years?
Red Bull just made cycling’s biggest bet.
Let’s see if Evenepoel can deliver the yellow jersey jackpot.