The planned mega-merger of the Jumbo-Visma and Soudal-QuickStep teams is off. Multiple reports in Belgium say that Soudal-QuickStep will continue as a WorldTour team through the end of 2025, with Patrick Lefevere and Czech billionaire Zdenek Bakala continuing to own the team.
That would mean Remco Evenepoel remains under contract with the team and avoids the fallout and loss of jobs for riders and staff that a merger or takeover would have caused.
Sporza and Het Nieuwsblad were among the outlets to report the news, which leaves Jumbo-Visma manager Richard Plugge still looking for a title sponsor beyond 2024, at which point the Jumbo supermarket chain is due to end its backing.
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Cyclingnews understands that Jumbo-Visma informed their riders and staff on Friday that the merger was off. The team has decided that it's not the best option for the future and they appear confident of securing other backers to guarantee the long-term future of the team.
In separate but related news, AD has reported that Amazon will not be sponsoring Jumbo-Visma after all, despite rumours linking them to a minor sponsorship deal. The Dutch newspaper instead reports that PON – owner of the team's bike supplier Cervelo – could step in as a title sponsor.
Reports of a potential merger first emerged two weeks ago, with Lefevere confirming as much, with Soudal expected to join forces with Visma as title sponsors and just six riders from the current Soudal-QuickStep move across to Plugge's team alongside Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard and Wout van Aert.
However, the teams faced a race against time to complete the legally complex deal and register with the UCI for the 2024 season, with dismay in the sport for the loss of a hugely successful team.
In the last few days, it appeared Lefevere would strive to keep his team alive even without Evenepoel or Soudal. Now the whole deal appears to have collapsed.
In the meantime, numerous riders from both teams have signed deals elsewhere, including Florian Sénèchal (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Michael Mørkøv (Astana Qazaqstan) at Soudal-QuickStep, and Primož Roglič, who confirmed on Friday that he'd be leaving Jumbo-Visma for Bora-Hansgrohe in the middle of his contract.
