Patrick Lefevere confirms discussions with Jumbo-Visma

First comment

Last Sunday, ‘WielerFlits’ announced for the first time that negotiations were taking place between Soudal Quick-Step and Jumbo-Visma. After a week of speculation, Patrick Lefevere has responded for the first time. “There was a meeting before the Tour between Zdenek Bakala (who owns 80% of the shares of Soudal Quick-Step) and Robert van der Wallen (member of the Supervisory Board of Jumbo-Visma),” Lefevere explained. “In the meantime, there was also dissatisfaction with our team, which was allegedly not functioning enough. In that context, Patrick Evenepoel also spoke one-on-one with Bakala, highly exceptional for a rider’s agent.”

More clarity on Monday

Lefevere himself joined the discussions on the penultimate day of the Tour. “To my surprise, Richard Plugge (CEO of Jumbo-Visma) arrived there,” said Lefevere. “After that, some time passed. I got Quick-Step and Soudal involved. Richard visited Visma, until at a certain point a ‘letter of intent’ was signed to merge. Then it would have been too long.” dragging on, but there should be more clarity on Monday.”

Lefevere would take up a management position on the Supervisory Board in the new team. Richard Plugge would lead the new team as CEO.