Professional cyclists are, first and foremost, human-sized billboards. They ride whatever frame they are told to ride, wear whatever sunglasses pay the bills, and drink whatever hydration mix is currently funding their salary.
But still. We didn’t expect to quite see the day when a rider would sign the rest of their life away to a brand. Specialized has, with some understandable excitement, announced that it has signed the Olympic Champion to an “unprecedented” lifetime agreement. The contract may well pass down to his kids too.
Evenepoel will never race a bicycle made by any other brand. Ever again. Colnago is now ‘the C word’ and he can only ever type ‘Tr*k.’ Which means he’ll fit in well on r/bicyclingcirclejerk.
Cycling has been locked down for a while, with riders tied to using their team’s gear rather than independent sponsorships. We know, we tried to disrupt it. Though, to be fair, the stuff we were trying to get Marianne Vos to use was pretty fucking shit.
Evenepoel is currently racing for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, a team that already rides Specialized. But if the 26-year-old Belgian ever decides he wants to transfer to another outfit before he retires, he has just made himself the most complicated rider in the history of the sport to acquire.
If a team like UAE Team Emirates or INEOS Grenadiers ever wants to sign Evenepoel, they can’t just pay his salary. They have to throw their Colnagos or Pinarellos in the garbage, rip up their multi-million dollar equipment contracts, and allow Specialized to completely take over their service course.
We saw shades of this when Peter Sagan forced TotalEnergies to switch to Specialized just to acquire his services, but Sagan never actually had a formalized “lifetime” contract. Remco just codified it.
But. Let’s breathe. Red Bull has already complicated this rule with its sponsorship of Wout Van Aert, for example. There’s a foot in the door for things to become more relaxed. And, furt– Wait… is that the UCI’s entrance music we hear?
Specialized founder Mike Sinyard said, “This isn’t just a lifetime partnership. It’s a belief without an end. Remco forever.” Cult? Trying to smash? Or just marketing.
We wish Remco and his corporate overlords a very happy eternity together.
REMCO FOREVER
