Evenepoel inks five-year Deceuninck-QuickStep extension

One of the brightest young stars of the sport, Remco Evenepoel has committed his future to Deceuninck-QuickStep until the end of the 2026 season.

Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quick Step) crosses the line to the cheers of the fans at the Baloise Belgium Tour Source: Getty Images

On Tuesday the Flemish team announced that Evenepoel, 21, had inked a new contract with the squad through the 2026 season. The deal would conclude with Evenepoel still at just 26 years of age.

Boasting an impressive palmares already, Evenepoel has won the European championships individual time trial, one-day Spanish race the Clásica San Sebastian, and was unbeaten in stage races last year finishing first overall in four events, culminating in the Tour of Poland victory.

“I feel really honored to put pen to paper for the next five years,” Evenepoel said in the Deceuninck-QuickStep release. “As Patrick [Lefevere] told me, this is the longest agreement he has ever signed with a rider. I’m really proud and happy to stay in this wonderful team, where I have already enjoyed a lot of success, and hopefully we can reach our big dreams.”

Following a trend within cycling for young contract extensions of young stars of the sport, Evenepoel’s five-year deal follow the likes of Egan Bernal in 2018 who signed a four-year deal with INEOS Grenadiers, and Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar recently extended a four-year deal, adding another two seasons with UAE-Team Emirates.

The news comes in the wake of Deceuninck-QuickStep boss Patrick Lefevre announcing that BORA-hansgrohe had made an approach to see if they could buy out Evenepoel's contract, then had tried to buy out the entire team. BORA-hansgrohe management confirmed the first statement but denied the second. 

With the move, Deceuninck-QuickStep has confirmed that they will continue down the line of developing a team for Grand Tours, despite the squad's traditional Classics roots.

Evenepoel is a transcendent rider who can climb, sprint, and time trial, in his first two years in the sport he is already thought of as one of the best in the world. He was set to make his grand tour debut at the 2020 Giro d’Italia, however a crash at Il Lombardia left Evenepoel with a cracked pelvis, which ended his season. Evenepoel has spent the last few months recovering from the injury, a process that has been delayed by setbacks, but clearly there isn't much concern about him making a full recovery with this announcement.

“It’s an important step for the future, for the team. Everybody knows what Remco is capable of and how talented he is,” Lefevere said in a release. “As he said, he’s happy, and one of my most important roles is to keep him happy and to put the right people around him.

"Because I know from experience, and I think I have some after a small 40 years in the sport, that happy people perform better than unhappy people. We’re glad Remco continues with the Wolfpack, and as he said, we hope we’ll enjoy many more great moments together.”