Geraint Thomas can’t imagine a merger between Jumbo-Visma and Soudal Quick-Step. He revealed this on his podcast Watts Occurring. “The only thing I’d say now is: Remco hates Jumbo, and Jumbo hates Remco, it won’t work,” said the 2018 Tour de France winner.
“You should hear what Roglic says about Remco,” he continued. “I don’t want to start any rumors, I’m just saying. The only thing I wonder is: why would Jumbo-Visma want this? They’ve just won all three Grand Tours (…). How can you not find a sponsor when you’ve won the Tour twice and dominated last season? You have the best riders. It will be sad if it’s true.”
Geraint Thomas doesn’t believe that Jumbo-Visma needs a larger budget to compete against UAE Team Emirates and his own team, INEOS Grenadiers. “I don’t know what we’ve got, but there are limits. At Sky, they could get more money if needed.”
“Much has been said about budgets in recent years, but it’s easy to say that INEOS has the biggest budget. And then they say, ‘Yes, we’re fine, but we have a small budget.’ Do you understand? All three of these teams have big budgets. If you like Wout van Aert, Primoz Roglic, Jonas Vingegaard, Sepp Kuss, and Dylan van Baarle, you need to have some money in the bank.”
More criticism of the merger
A merger would also have significant consequences for many riders and staff from both teams, Thomas believes. “If two teams merge, things will be good for the big names. But half of the jobs will be lost. You can only have the maximum number of riders, and you’re not going to employ 24 captains. Many people will lose their jobs, which would also be sad to see.”
Thomas states that having too many top athletes on one team can also cause problems. “Suppose Roglic wants to win the Tour next year, now that he has won the Giro and the Vuelta. Will Vingegaard want him on the team? If Roglic doesn’t make it onto the team, you’ll have an unhappy rider,” Thomas said.