Peter Sagan seems to be on his way out of Bora-hansgrohe and Deceuninck-Quick-Step would be one of the candidates to recruit the three-time world champion.
Sagan was linked to Deceuninck-Quick-Step by several newspapers. Manager Patrick Lefevere is said to have already made an offer of 8 million euros to attract the Slovak rider.
“I’ve already talked to Giovanni Lombardi (Sagan’s manager), but the numbers I’ve read in the papers surprise me. Where do they get that? If the amount is correct, where would I just find 8 million euros in my office?”, said Lefevere.
Sagan would not only come to Deceuninck-Quick-Step with brother Juraj, but Daniel Oss and Maciej Bodnar would also follow him, as well as additional staff.
“I have already said that I don’t want a team on my team.”
“If I really want to sign Sagan, I will have to go back to my sponsors. They pay at the end of the day and I will need them. If not, then I will fail to attract Sagan.”
“He’s a very good rider and I like that. Many journalists think his career is almost over, but great champions are rarely down early. Just look at what we did with Philippe Gilbert and what Mark Cavendish is doing now.”
“I don’t think Sagan’s career is over yet. Whether I can manage to fit him into our team, with our ambitions, I cannot answer today.”
The big goal of Patrick Lefevere and Deceuninck-Quick-Step is to win the Tour de France with Remco Evenepoel in the coming years.
“I don’t think we should attract too many riders”, Lefevere said. “It is a shame that Joao Almeida will leave the team. I always prefer to play with two leaders in a grand tour, but maybe someone new can be added to our team.”
“The riders’ agents are all very nervous and want me to quickly complete my team for next season. That is not correct. The three grand tours have yet to be completed and I want to save some places in my team for a possible surprise”.
“With my current budget we have already achieved very good things. We are now working hard to improve it for the coming seasons. But we will never get close to Ineos”, Patrick Lefevere concluded.
