Patrick Lefevere turned 71 on January 6, and the former team boss has taken time out on his birthday to talk about his former charge Remco Evenepoel's chances of winning the Tour de France.
The veteran former team boss was in charge at Soudal-QuickStep for the first five years of the six Evenepoel spent at the Belgian team. However, the racer moved on to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe this off-season in a bid to beat Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) at the Tour.
The 25-year-old finished third behind the pair at the 2024 Tour, while last year he lay third overall when he abandoned the race on stage 14. Lefevere said he doesn't think that Evenepoel will come out on top just yet.
"He says he wants to win the Tour and beat Tadej Pogačar. I wish him the best of luck," Lefevere told Sporza.
"I'll remain a supporter. I discovered him when he was 17. I'm not someone who just throws everything you've experienced for seven years in the trash. In my heart, I'll remain a fan.
"He has the potential, but I think Pogačar is still out of his league at the moment.
"Remco has already had a lot of setbacks. If he has a good winter now, and if he can do what he wants, then we'll see."
Evenepoel is set to head to this year's Tour as Red Bull's co-leader. He'll line up alongside German racer Florian Lipowitz, who raced to third place on his Tour debut last summer.
Lefevere wondered how Evenepoel would deal with the prospect of shared leadership at the Tour, having enjoyed a solo GC leadership role at Soudal-QuickStep.
"They can have more money, and they can do what they want, but you can't buy the Tour. He'll have to do it with his legs and his head," Lefevere said.
"He probably has a better team, but with us, he was only the leader. He says he doesn't have a problem now, but knowing him.
"And the other one [Lipowitz] is German. I'm looking forward to it. If they get along well, there's something to do, but I'm not Madame Soleil."
Lefevere also mused whether Evenepoel might take on more one-day races than he's been scheduled for, too.
This season he's down to race the Ardennes Classics, though much of his calendar is focussed on stage racing. There had previously been rumours of him making a Tour of Flanders debut in 2026, but that wasn't on his calendar when it was revealed in early December.
"He says he's focussing on the Tour, but maybe a few one-day races will fall out of the sky," Lefevere said, before noting that Evenepoel's new German team might hold less affinity for Flanders compared to QuickStep.
"I don't think they're saying it yet, although they have a lot of good riders in that team. Can that programme still change? I don't know. They're German. We'll see."
