Why did Evenepoel reject the 10 million offer from Red Bull Bora?

The end of the season has been filled with negotiations between some of the highest paid cyclists in the peloton and teams willing to pay unimaginable amounts for them. One of those cases has been the newly crowned world champion, double Olympic gold medalist, and third in the 2024 Tour, Remco Evenepoel.

The reason why Remco Evenepoel would have rejected the offer from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe was not just economic

Just before the World Championship in Switzerland, Remco Evenepoel confirmed that he will at least stay one more year at Soudal Quick-Step. Putting an end to many rumors that were circulating about possible advanced negotiations with Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. But why did he decide to stay in his current team even when Red Bull's offer tripled his current salary?

Belgian journalist Michel Wuyts shared some details about the negotiation in Het Laatste Nieuws and gave some reasons why Evenepoel decided to stay at Soudal Quick-Step.

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"The thing is that Evenepoel, to finish third or second in Paris, will not need a full team of climbers for 2025" "I wonder if a transition to Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe would have brought Evenepoel closer to the final yellow jersey" Wuyts said while explaining the German team and exposing that not only is it not better than his current team, but he would also have to compete with Roglic in their ranks. 

He then delved into financial matters, stating that Evenepoel stayed at Soudal Quick-Step with a new salary of 5 million euros, but Bull-BORA-hansgrohe wanted to convince him with a much larger sum. "Keep in mind that Evenepoel had a contract ready for 10 million a year plus three trusted men, including Quick-Step director Klaas Lodewyck"

This analyst concluded that Lefevere along with his operations director Jurgen Fore had to make a big effort to retain Evenepoel, including the salary increase to 5 million and it seems that they accompanied it with significant bonuses.

With this update, Evenepoel would directly move to the second position of the highest paid cyclists.