Patrick Lefevere was an astute workforce supervisor, his expertise constructed on a long time of profitable massive races, discovering sponsors and signing gifted riders. He knew learn how to get the very best out of his riders and employees, but in addition knew when it was time to let a big-name workforce chief go and rapidly signal the subsequent great point.
Now near his seventieth birthday, with Remco Evenepoel the dominant power at Soudal-QuickStep and the world {of professional} biking very totally different to when Lefevere turned a workforce supervisor in 1979, the Belgian former professional has realised it’s time to let go of the workforce he created and made so profitable.
When Soudal-QuickStep briefly rebranded to T-Rex QuickStep at this yr’s Vuelta, it was arduous to overlook the parallels with the workforce’s historic supervisor. Lefevere was aggressive, gigantic, and sometimes comical, however on the similar time held Jurassic views on the game and the dynamics of the broader fashionable world. He was incessantly centre-stage for an ill-judged remark or backward perspective.
For Soudal-QuickStep, for Belgian biking, and for skilled biking, it truly is the tip of an period. 54-year-old Jurgen Foré will step up and take full management of the workforce, whereas Lefevere retires and turns into an honorary board member of the workforce.
Lefevere won’t be concerned within the day-to-day working of the workforce and his affect on the game will even weaken. He will certainly attend the largest races and communicate his thoughts, however as a visitor and veteran of the game, not from a place of energy.
“It’s a life-changing second to go away a job that I’ve dedicated a lot of my life to however I felt that it was the fitting second for this alteration,” Lefevere stated.
Lefevere knowledgeable the 180 riders and employees of the Soudal-QuickStep and AG Insurance coverage-Soudal girls’s groups of his determination at their annual dinner at their coaching camp in Spain on Tuesday night. The information quickly changed Tadej Pogacar‘s 2025 objectives because the top-billed information of the day, one other signal of his affect and historical past within the sport.
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“I did not wish to depart in the course of the season and the successor is prepared, so now’s the fitting time. I am turning 70 and I’ve finished sufficient,” he informed Sporza, who began one report by suggesting “the biking world must discover a new Godfather.”
“The choice was actually not compelled. I flew to Switzerland for a dialog with the workforce proprietor Zdenek Bakala. We made the choice collectively there,” Lefevere stated.
“We’re going to proceed the workforce. I do know I’m not leaving a burning boat. Bakala has confirmed that he believes within the workforce and can proceed to take a position.”
A few of his oldest employees had been apparently in tears. Lots of Lefevere’s former riders praised him for his management and success, whereas highlighting his blunt and generally aggressive character.
“Patrick says what he thinks. I can deal with that. It may need bothered others extra however I may deal with it effectively. And I usually answered again,” former Belgian rider and a number of Classics winner Tom Boonen stated.
“We had a number of respect for one another and that’s nonetheless the case. Patrick is among the few individuals who has been on the prime for therefore lengthy.”
Fighter, businessman, automotive salesman
Lefevere usually reminded those that he was a great bookkeeper and so counted each penny in his workforce price range, alongside together with his spouse who managed the workforce’s accounts. He usually misplaced his mood at Cyclingnews after we requested him questions he did not like, but in addition spoke at size and overtly concerning the issues of the game. His voice can be missed.
“Patrick was an actual fighter, a businessman who I at all times in comparison with a West Flemish automotive salesman,” former nationwide coach and tv commentator José De Cauwer informed Sporza.
“In case you tried to promote him your automotive, in keeping with him, there was nothing good about it. But when he then offered the identical automotive, it was the very best automotive on this planet.
“In Belgium there are few individuals in racing with larger benefit.”
Not everybody can be unhappy to see Lefevere go.
His straight-talking was sometimes offensive and went too far. He overtly criticised riders, usually whereas in contract negotiations with them. He drove a tough cut price however was additionally a father determine in a distinction of types.
When he insinuated that Julian Alaphilippe’s companion Marion Rousse was the reason for the Frenchman’s lacklustre performances, Lefevere confronted a 20,000 CHF effective from the UCI for feedback that had been ‘disparaging towards girls’.
He most well-liked to apologise in a second of understanding, however he struggled to grasp the variations and wishes of managing a girls’s workforce. He was entrenched in his personal character.
But his groups, which spanned from Marc Cleaning soap Plant to GB-MG, Mapei, Domo-Farm Fries, Fast-Step after which Soudal, between 1979 and in the present day, had been at all times profitable, avoiding the worst controversies of the game and profitable the largest Classics.
Lefevere’s workforce supervisor palmares embody 22 monument victories, seven world titles and 124 Grand Tour levels as a part of over 1,000 victories.
A brand new period
Lefevere will formally step down on the finish of the yr however in fact, Jurgen Foré and Evenepoel are already within the driving seat.
Cyclingnews has been informed that Foré was capable of persuade Evenepoel and his father, who acts as his agent, to disregard the temptations of Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgohe and stick with Soudal-QuickStep. Foré managed to seek out the additional funds and strengthen the workforce to ease any tensions with Evenepoel. His activity can be to enhance and develop the workforce much more to match Evenepoel’s ambitions.
Foré could be very totally different to Lefevere, he’s extra fashionable considering and fewer vocal. He’s the son of former bicycle owner Noël Foré and raced till he was 23 however quickly moved into the world of enterprise consulting with Deloitte. He’s softly spoken however instructions an air of authority. It is a stark distinction – a company C-suite has taken over from the do-it-all former professional rider.
Foré has been tasked with strengthening the sportive, business and operational processes of the workforce. He can be a part of the workforce’s government board, which incorporates majority shareholder Zdenek Bakala, Lefevere and the workforce’s authorized counsel Auret Van Zyl.
“These are massive footwear to fill,” Foré admitted on Tuesday morning.
“Patrick is a giant persona and has been profitable for a very long time. I’m proud to take over from him and can do every thing I can to do it in addition to doable. However I’ll stay myself: I might slightly be the very best model of myself than a foul copy of another person.”
The Lefevere period in skilled biking is now formally over.
Now it’s up Foré and Evenepoel to write down the subsequent chapter of Soudal-QuickStep’s lengthy historical past within the sport, to maintain Belgian biking on the map and within the WorldTour as they tackle Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard and their greater price range rival superteams.
