Once Belgium's hottest climbing prospect, Vervaeke reinvented himself as one of the peloton's most selfless mountain domestiques, shepherding Evenepoel through Grand Tours for four seasons. Riding only his second Tour de France, he will be Paret-Peintre's and Van Wilder's bodyguard when the road tilts up — with a green light for breakaways of his own. His long-awaited first pro win finally came at the 2025 Tour of Oman, eleven years into his career.
Palmarès
- Tour of Oman stage winner (2025)
- Ronde de l'Isard overall winner (2014)
- Tour des Pays de Savoie overall winner (2014)
- Deutschland Tour mountains classification (2021)
- Vuelta a España stage combativity award (2025)
Cut-out factHe waited 11 years for his first professional victory — then celebrated the 2025 Tour of Oman stage win so calmly that teammates joked he had been rehearsing it for a decade.
The squad
Riding the 2026 Tour with Tim Merlier, Pascal Eenkhoorn, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Jasper Stuyven, Dylan van Baarle, Bert Van Lerberghe, Ilan Van Wilder — see the full Soudal Quick-Step team page.
Portrait: AI paper-collage render (gpt-image-2) after a reference photograph — source: Wikimedia Commons, author: Jérémy-Günther-Heinz Jähnick, license: CC BY-SA 3.0.
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