Philippe Gilbert is not in favor of the imminent merger between Jumbo-Visma and Soudal Quick-Step. The Belgian, who won the World Championship in 2012, believes that the consequences will not be good for cycling. He even uses the word “catastrophic.”
“Once again, there is an episode about a merger of Decolef,” writes Gilbert, now 41 years old, on social media. Decolef is the company behind Soudal Quickstep and has Patrick Lefevere as its CEO.
“Will this really become concrete?” Gilbert asks, who rode under Lefevere’s leadership from 2017 to 2019. “A merger between the Decolef team and Richard Plugge would have catastrophic consequences for the economics of professional cycling.”
The merger of the two top teams in the Netherlands and Belgium is still a topic of discussion. According to experts, it’s only a matter of time before this spectacular and surprising merger is finalized. Richard Plugge (Jumbo-Visma) would become the CEO, Patrick Lefevere (Soudal-Quickstep) would be part of the Board of Directors, and Merijn Zeeman (Jumbo-Visma) would be the head coach.