SOUDALQUICK STEP
Looking for: High GC place with Remco Evenepoel and stage wins
If this year's Tour de France doesn't work out drastically differently to last year's for Soudal-quick Step, it will almost certainly be seen as an abject failure. Last year's race was saved by a win on stage 18 by Kasper Asgreen, and the Dane also managed a second place on the following day's stage – but beyond that, nothing.
If last year was mostly a Tour to forget for the team, the plan this year is for a Tour to remember. The responsibility for
that lies chiefly with one rider, Remco Evenepoel. The precocious Belgian became the first rider from his nation to win a Grand Tour since 1978 when he won the Vuelta a España in 2022, aged just 22. A super-talent who sits among the world's top few time triallists, he's capable of matching the best in the mountains too. This will be his first Tour de France, and he will start in Florence with his cards firmly on the table – the aim is GC victory. Should he succeed, he would be the first Belgian to win since Eddy Merckx in 1974 – 50 years ago. The big question mark over Evenepoel though, is how much form he can recover, after suffering a major crash earlier in the season.
Evenepoel will be ably supported by a team that, in a reflection of its GC aims, looks very different to the rouleur-heavy squad of last year. Spanish climber Mikkel Landa – once a potential Tour de France winner himself – will be the Belgian's number-one domestique, pacing and sheltering him in the mountains for as long as he can. Riding in support on the climbs will be Louis
Vervaeke, 30-years-old now but a rider who announced himself to the pro ranks with a win at La Toussuire in the Tour de l'avenir.
The rest of the team looks less climbing-focused, with riders like Gianni Moscon, fast-finisher Casper Pedersen and former Tour stage winner Yves Lampaert providing the big engines that will help drag Evenepoel around France for three weeks, and who are more than capable of winning themselves a stage on the right day.