And Lefevre hopes he'll stay
By Brecht Decaluwé
Quick.Step-Innergetic team manager Patrick Lefevre wasn't on the winning side in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but didn't look too disappointed after the race, speaking pragmatically on the day's events: "Bettini rode a nice race; he did what he had to do.
"On the Côte du Sart-Tilman, he caused pain to everybody with his acceleration. Sadly though, they got caught and so he lost a lot of energy for the sprint. There he was in the right wheel, he was just not strong enough to overtake Valverde. Maybe the team should've had somebody else in the break of twenty riders, though I noticed most of them were team leaders so you can't expect miracles from the guys," said the Belgian.
Cyclingnews also asked Lefevre about the team's performance and the future of some riders in the team: "For the team, the balance after the Spring Classics is positive with victories rolling in right from Qatar to Paris-Nice and the Tour of Flanders. Now, I will take three days [off] to have a fresh mind; afterwards, I'll start the negotiations with the riders for next season. We all know that there are some teams with massive budgets. If I'm offering 100 [thousand] Euro to Bettini, and somebody offers him 200 [thousand] Euro, we'll shake hands with Bettini. We acknowledge his value for the team: the man has eight classics on his palmarès, so we're hoping that he will stay."
