Soudal-Quickstep will see the departures of Tour of Flanders winner Kasper Asgreen and Giro d'Italia stage winners Jan Hirt and Fausto Masnada, the team's manager Patrick Lefevere revealed in his latest column in Het Nieuwsblad.
Lefevere said he spoke to Asgreen at the start of the Vuelta a España and informed him that his "performances were no longer in proportion to the salary".
"[Asgreen] was prepared to make concessions, but we did not reach an agreement. Julian and Kasper are riders you say goodbye to with a heavy heart."
Soudal-Quickstep have reinvented themselves as a Grand Tour team behind Remco Evenepoel, who was third in the Tour de France and won the best young rider's classification.
"To be clear: Jurgen [COO Jurgen Foré -ed] nor I assume that they will beat Wout van Aert or Mathieu van der Poel in the Tour of Flanders, but it certainly gives us more midfielders."
The departure of Masnada, he said was a 'no-brainer'. He criticized the Italian for not performing because of injuries but also for being too "headstrong".
"In Lombardy 2021 he was really good, but he ignored Davide Bramati's instructions by riding full-on with Tadej Pogacar."
"Jan Hirt is also leaving the team and I think that's a shame. Of course, he has every right to cash in his eighth place in the Giro with Israel-Premier Tech, but his explanation was strange. 'I want to stay, but my agent sees it differently.' Well, I thought it was the riders who decided their own future," Lefevere wrote.
He regretted losing out on signing Mick and Tim van Dijke, who signed with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe instead, saying "When we approached that type of rider in the past, it was almost an automatic yes. Now, after a good conversation, they sign for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe. No reproach towards them - they played it correctly.
"The market is extremely competitive. Don't get me wrong: attracting good riders has never been easy, but in recent years a lot of 'new' money has come into racing with Israel, Decathlon, Tudor, Red Bull, Lidl... Teams that used to have a specific 'orientation' - broadly speaking classics or stage races - now have the budgetary space to focus on the two."
