No Visma-Soudal merger, no Amazon arrival. All will come to nothing

Yet another chapter in the merger between Soudal-QuickStep and Jumbo-Visma after the information that appeared in several Belgian media such as Sporza or Het Laaste Niews in which they consider the merger negotiations broken and advance that Patrick Lefevere and Zdenek Bakala, owner of the Soudal-QuickStep structure will continue together in 2024.

Much ado about nothing in the merger between Soudal-QuickStep and Jumbo-Visma

We warned at the beginning of the whole story of the merger between Soudal-Quickstep and Jumbo-Visma that all the information that was appearing had to be taken carefully. Those of us who have been following cycling for many years know that there is a huge gap between what is rumored, commented or advanced and reality.

At the beginning of last week practically everyone in the cycling world thought that the merger was imminent, but hours and days went by without any news, while new rumors about new sponsorships for Jumbo-Visma, such as Amazon or Apple, were appearing.

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However, in the last hours, as well as the first ones, some information that must be put in quarantine, several reputable Belgian media announced the breakdown of negotiations between the two teams which would mean that, at least for Soudal-QuickStep, everything would remain the same, retaining the same sponsors with which it has had this season and with which it had a valid contract. The only question now is what will happen to the riders in the squad, many of whom have probably started talks with other teams, especially Remco Evenepoel, who everyone was already thinking of joining INEOS Grenadiers.

On the Dutch side, it would not be a drama either, since Jumbo, when it announced the end of its sponsorship, guaranteed that it would keep it until the end of 2024 if the team could not find a replacement. However, Pon Group, the powerful business group that owns Cervélo and other brands such as Cannondale, Focus and Santa Cruz, is already being considered as the main sponsor.

However, it is likely that the last lines have not yet been written in the script of this film and, surely, the plot still has some interesting twists in store for us.