The old tradition of teams at the Tour de France holding press conferences on the rest days is slowly dying out. Visma-Lease a Bike opted for more media availability following Monday's stage 10, and the chief "news" from its rest-day liveblog was that longtime Visma pro Robert Gesink, who retired last year, joined the team for a coffee ride. Similarly, UAE Team Emirates-XRG didn't hold a press conference, instead sharing comments from Tadej Pogačar on its social media channels, mostly along the lines of being happy that the race is finally getting to his preferred terrain.
But Soudal-QuickStep kept up the old familiar routine, perhaps inadvertently showing why the press conference is falling out of fashion. Soudal's own preferred headline stories from its rest day were that Ilan van Wilder has extended his contract until 2028, and the release of a commemorative jersey to celebrate the 25th anniversary of sponsor Safety Jogger (per the press release, Safety Jogger "has consistently pushed the boundaries of protective footwear and apparel" which, come to think of it, are perhaps boundaries that should not be pushed).
But the real headline was that, amid persistent, ongoing rumors about a possible switch to another team (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe this time), star rider Remco Evenepoel again declined to commit to seeing out his contact with Soudal, which runs through 2026.
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