Jumbo - QuickStep merger

[Bolder]

If he wants to win the tour, he'll have to be better than Jonas anyway, be it in the same team or another.
So it makes no difference.
Even on the contrary perhaps, he'll have equal team/staff support, at least when it comes to training, schedule, preparation and all that.

Indeed. Although as designated leader on Ineos, say, he'd probably have 100% support vs 50-50 at best at VismaSoudal. On the other hand it's not yet clear that he performs better as sole leader in a GT than he would with less pressure and a smaller slice of the spotlight.

ATM he would not win a head to head GT duel with Jonas but then neither would Pog...

After seeing how QS handled him in GTs in the past 3 years, I think he'd be way better off at Ineos. There's no room for him at Visma unless he's happy at the Vuelta or Giro.

 

[Squire]

Vingegaard won't complain because he knew what he signed up for when he started there.

When has any cyclist ever remembered what he signed up for when he put his name on the contract?

And how are Quickstep the outcome of a merger?

Lefevere's Domo-Farm Frites team merged with Mapei to form Quickstep in 2003.

 

[samhocking]

I'm not talking about a rule against mergers, I'm talking about a rule against teams randomly starting talking about a merger this late in the season. Especially when it - like in this case - isn't a matter of one of the teams folding anyway.
If the talk had started in, for example May, then it wouldn't have been that big an issue.

And how are Quickstep the outcome of a merger?

I dont think theres ever a good time. This is as good as it gets and still gives riders time to find contracts without having to race at the same time.
Quickstep are the merger of Mapei and Domo and Mapei were the merger and then closure of CLAS.

 

[RedheadDane]

I dont think theres ever a good time. This is as good as it gets and still gives riders time to find contracts without having to race at the same time.

Pretty sure earlier in the season is better, gives people more time.
Also pretty sure it's easier for riders to find contracts if they have recent races to use as negotiation tools.

 

[theyoungest]

I dont think theres ever a good time. This is as good as it gets and still gives riders time to find contracts without having to race at the same time.
Quickstep are the merger of Mapei and Domo and Mapei were the merger and then closure of CLAS.

And more recently, Quickstep effectively merged with HTC-Highroad. Remember that before that it was mostly team-Boonen, the Wolfpack success came afterwards.

Lefevere has done it before: merge with the most successful team.

If Remco goes to Jumbo, I think the only way he will win the Tour is like Kuss did this year. That's if he can last the course. It seems like it's desperation to get Remco his Tour win at any cost.

Remco isn't really a factor in this, it's about the sponsor. If this merger is actually on the cards, of course. They'd probably love to get Evenepoel on their team, but he's not why they started these negotiations.

 

[samhocking]

According to the Journalist who broke this merger story, Plugge has been very straightforward in saying to journalists that he is very keen to work with Remco. I think this is primarily financial with Soudal, but also Soudal comes with Remco and he brings Specialized and opens up Plugges ability to source aditional Belgian sponsorship. I highly doubt Vingo or Roglic has that pull for new sponsors. Kuss maybe un US market, but if he doesn't have desire to be a GC leader it doesnt matter.

 

[staubsauger]

Visma is a Scandinavian enterprise so Vingegaard obviously has had that pull. Just like Hagenes & Co

 

[samhocking]

Visma is a Scandinavian enterprise so Vingegaard obviously has had that pull. Just like Hagenes & Co

They are not even a major sponsor. The financial issue for Plugge seems to be that while Jumbos sponsorship amount was relatively small in itself, all the money came from the sponsors Jumbo Supermarket brought with them. So finding a sponsor to replace Jumbo is a bigger task that we might appreciate as it's not just Jumbod money that needs to be found its Unilever, Heinkel, Gorrilas (in financial trouble) etc etc. Visma would have stepped up already to be major sponsor if they wanted. They haven't and team registrations essentially already happened.

 

[theyoungest]

According to the Journalist who broke this merger story, Plugge has been very straightforward in saying to journalists that he is very keen to work with Remco. I think this is primarily financial with Soudal, but also Soudal comes with Remco and he brings Specialized and opens up Plugges ability to source aditional Belgian sponsorship. I highly doubt Vingo or Roglic has that pull for new sponsors. Kuss maybe un US market, but if he doesn't have desire to be a GC leader it doesnt matter.

Yeah, Plugge said that in an interview with a Belgian newspaper. But you know how that goes, they keep on asking him what he thinks of Evenepoel, and why he "failed" in the Vuelta. Then Plugge says "I'd love to work with him so we could find out".

Actually, having listened to Kerckhoffs on the Cycling Podcast (the guy isn't pleasant to listen to in Dutch, but in English it's just terrible ) I'm less convinced than I was before that this is going to happen. He has mostly been connecting the dots on his own, using things like what Plugge said about Evenepoel to support his theory. This is not very convincing. Also the idea that Jumbo won't pay the full amount next year... I think that's in their contract. They have to, unless Plugge finds another sponsor.

What he says about many of their sponsors being tied to Jumbo is true, but then he ignores Cervélo, also a Dutch-owned company and seemingly a very good fit for Plugge's team. The owners are Pon Holding, they have a huge portfolio of brands, both cars and bikes, and they are a multi billion euro company. I'm just guessing they'd go pretty far to stay on board rather than having Specialized take over.

 

[Berniece]

When has any cyclist ever remembered what he signed up for when he put his name on the contract?

I mean the culture of winning together and that no one is bigger than the team. Riders are filtered on that by staff members.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

This article may delay the merger to 2025 :
Artikel 2.15.044 UCI “A licence may only be transferred after two years (from the date of its award).”

Or Visma should buy the company behind the licence of soudal quickstep...

The result of that would be 17 World Teams: it can't be used to force a team to keep racing. It might mean that a redundant asset cannot be sold on, and is therefore a disincentive to merger/folding, but needn't delay it.

Or possibly (I don't know the small print) saying "You can't have two licences, and you don't have the right to transfer it for another year, so we will take it back and sell it."

 

[Berniece]

Since Specialized will probably follow the merger, Vingegaard's TT will be even faster with that weird helmet of Specialized

 

[samhocking]

We'll see, but Friebe wasn't exactly doubting Kerckhoffs merger story happening. As we heard, someone internal at either QS or Jumbo has discussed this all with Kerckhoffs, just he wouldn't have had the exact details of what riders and what sponsors yet.
My hunch is Remco and Soudal are the deal. No Remco = no Soudal. We know Ineos will not accept a co-sponsor with Soudal to get Remco and that fell though over the summer already.
I think we'll know more when Ineos & Movistar announce their riders for 2024.

 

[samhocking]

Sounds like it's happening to me. Plugge meeting with Lappartiant so he can bend UCI licence transfer to sell the licence. Specialized visited Jumbo HQ to discuss sponsorship, Lefevere met with Remco and his Dad and then it seems went to visit Jumbo HQ even though he denied it.

UCI informed of Soudal-QuickStep and Jumbo-Visma merger plans

Potential legal question marks emerge over destiny of 'spare' WorldTour licence following any merger

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[pastronef]

wow.
1 WT license available. Israel should go for it. there will be 1 more wild card for the TDF (18WT, Lotto, Uno-X, Total and 1 more)
if Lotto hopefully skips the Giro again there could be Eolo-Polti, Bardiani, Tudor, Q36.5

 

[samhocking]

wow.
1 WT license available. Israel should go for it. there will be 1 more wild card for the TDF (18WT, Lotto, Uno-X, Total and 1 more)
if Lotto hopefully skips the Giro again there could be Eolo-Polti, Bardiani, Tudor, Q36.5

Imagine if after all this. Israel get the WT licence and Froome then wins 2024 Tour haha!

 

[pastronef]

Imagine if after all this. Israel get the WT licence and Froome then wins 2024 Tour haha!

for as much as I love Chris I fear the winning days are over. Israel could surely buy the WT license (even though they are more than fine for the 2024 wild cards)

 

[joseph89]

The rumours re: Roglic being on the way out at Jumbo are becoming more concrete.

• Jumbo are allowing Roglic to buy out his contract
• Ineos is still the most likely destination
• Trek, Bahrain, Jayco and Movistar have also shown interest
• Roglic will supposedly decide where he's going this week

Merger is happening.

 

[theyoungest]

Sounds like it's happening to me. Plugge meeting with Lappartiant so he can bend UCI licence transfer to sell the licence. Specialized visited Jumbo HQ to discuss sponsorship, Lefevere met with Remco and his Dad and then it seems went to visit Jumbo HQ even though he denied it.

UCI informed of Soudal-QuickStep and Jumbo-Visma merger plans

Potential legal question marks emerge over destiny of 'spare' WorldTour licence following any merger

www.cyclingnews.com

Nothing really new in that article, but the practicality of the whole thing is so difficult that I struggle to see it happening. They have about 50 riders under contract for the two men's pro teams. Guys like Roglic and Alaphilippe will get picked up, but then there's still about 15 riders they need to get rid of. Then there's also the staff, right now it seems like it's the Quickstep setup folding and Jumbo taking over their sponsors plus a few riders. That means the staff of an entire team is suddenly without a job.

Not to mention the women's teams and the development teams. Both Jumbo and Quickstep have them, and those would have to merge as well, one would assume. How is all of this even possible within three months? And where will Cervélo go, from sponsoring the best cycling team in the world to... nothing?

Maybe it's just because I don't believe they're actually so desperate that this is the only option, but if it is, wow, that's really sad.

 

[samhocking]

Nothing really new in that article, but the practicality of the whole thing is so difficult that I struggle to see it happening. They have about 50 riders under contract for the two men's pro teams. Guys like Roglic and Alaphilippe will get picked up, but then there's still about 15 riders they need to get rid of. Then there's also the staff, right now it seems like it's the Quickstep setup folding and Jumbo taking over their sponsors plus a few riders. That means the staff of an entire team is suddenly without a job.

Not to mention the women's teams and the development teams. Both Jumbo and Quickstep have them, and those would have to merge as well, one would assume. How is all of this even possible within three months? And where will Cervélo go, from sponsoring the best cycling team in the world to... nothing?

Maybe it's just because I don't believe they're actually so desperate that this is the only option, but if it is, wow, that's really sad.

Its pro cycling. Teams are always fighting for money to survive. Quickstep are the most successful non-GC UCI team by some margin over the last decade and they're being merged to save the most successful GC team of the moment because they lost their sponsors. It's the business model of pro cycling unfortunatly.

 

[Rob5091]

Well, going from the latest news, one things for sure, there's some lawyers getting some extra income. Otherwise, it's all as clear as mud! (Have any bookies opened a book yet on the proposed merger?)

 

[cen]

Am I brave enough to start the inevitable Vinge vs Roglic thread?

 

[joseph89]

Something that was mentioned on TCP was that SQS dev team and AG-SQS aren't owned by bakala and the merger could just be the Men's WT.

 

[Samamba]

SQS dev team

But Jumbo also has a Devo team already? I'm assuming (maybe it's actually possible) that a Pro team can only have 1 designated devo team?

EDIT: hmm, I just remembered that Bahrain has 2? And Bora too? But I'm not sure if they're technically devo teams.

 

[FroomeWagon]

Imagine if after all this. Israel get the WT licence and Froome then wins 2024 Tour haha!

A big reason they lost their WT license in the first place was because Froome was their Tour GC leader.