Soudal-QuickStep have unveiled their team to support Remco Evenepoel at the Tour de France this month as the Belgian star battles for the maillot jaune.
Evenepoel finished third behind Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard on his Tour de France debut last July and will be looking to take the fight to the pair, winners of the past five Tours, as well as Primož Roglič, this time around.
The 25-year-old, newly crowned as the Belgian time trial champion to go with his world and Olympic titles, will count on support from a versatile squad of riders, which will also help European champion Tim Merlier in the sprints.
Valentin Paret-Peintre, a new signing at Soudal-QuickStep this year, is the sole Frenchman in the lineup. The Tour of Oman runner-up will make his Tour debut and figures to be a key helper for Evenepoel in the mountains and hills.
Belgian racer Ilan Van Wilder, racing his second Tour, will be Evenepoel's climbing lieutenant. He's enjoyed a strong season so far, scoring top 10s at the Volta ao Algarve, Paris-Nice, Itzulia Basque Country, and Tour de Suisse, and should be the last man for Evenepoel in the high mountains.
Italian Mattia Cattaneo and Dutchman Pascal Eenkhoorn are both racing the Tour for the second time, with Cattaneo having finished 12th at the race four years ago. Thirty-one-year-old German Max Schachmann takes on the Tour for the first time since 2022, meanwhile. The trio will be key support riders in the hills, especially Schachmann, who finished third at April's Itzulia Basque Country.
"It's my second Tour de France and I'm looking forward to the Grand Départ, which won't be far from Belgium," Evenepoel said. "I think it's obvious that I'm aiming for a good general classification, but the most important thing will be to not lose time in the first half of the race, which should be a very nervous one, with lots of traps and tricky roads.
"Just like last year, I want to win a stage there and do a good GC, while taking it one day at a time."
Evenepoel and his teammates have been preparing for the Tour at altitude in the Alps, with Soudal-QuickStep based in Tignes for their pre-Tour training camp. After finishing fourth at the Critérium du Dauphiné earlier this month, he returned to racing following camp at the Belgian Road Championships at the weekend.
There, he delivered a dominant time trial performance in Brasschaat to take the national title by over a minute, while on Sunday, he finished second in the 230km road race, with Tim Wellens escaping 41km from the finish to take the title.
Soudal-QuickStep's sprint hope Tim Merlier finished 11th at the latter race. The 32-year-old heads into the Tour in good form, having won the Brussels Cycling Classic and two stages at the Baloise Belgium Tour this month.
Merlier is racing the Tour for the first time since 2021, when he shared sprint leadership with Jasper Philipsen at Alpecin-Fenix. Now, he'll face off against his former teammate, with the pair expected to be the quickest sprinters at this year's race.
With the team's focus having turned to support Evenepoel's GC ambitions in recent years, Merlier, who leads Philipsen 7-2 in their sprint battles this season, won't have a full, dedicated lead-out train this July.
However, he can count on Tour debutant Bert Van Lerberghe to lead him out on the flat days, while the rest of the team will chip in to help during the sprinter-friendly first week, too.
"The race can be divided into two parts. A hectic first half, without a proper mountain stage, but with a flat individual time trial where gaps can be made, and plenty of opportunities for the sprinters and the puncheurs," said Soudal-QuickStep sports director Tom Steels.
"Tim and Remco will have a couple of chances, but important will be that everybody makes it through those ten stages safely. The many mountain stages and the uphill time trial that come in the second part will make for an incredibly hard race, but also the last stage in Paris should play a role in the general classification.
"We have a strong and experienced team, capable of some nice things this summer, and so we start with a lot of confidence."
Soudal-QuickStep for the 2025 Tour de France
- Remco Evenepoel (Bel)
- Mattia Cattaneo (Ita)
- Pascal Eenkhoorn (Ned)
- Tim Merlier (Bel)
- Valentin Paret-Peintre (Fra)
- Max Schachmann (Ger)
- Bert Van Lerberghe (Bel)
- Ilan Van Wilder (Bel)
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