'I'm not feeling beaten before the start' - Soudal-QuickStep cling to faith for Tour of Flanders

Like all religious holidays, the Tour of Flanders has its holy places and its rituals. Some of the sacred sites are obvious, like the Kwaremont, the Paterberg or the Grote Markt in Bruges. Others, like the laminate flooring showroom in Wielsbeke, are more esoteric.

QuickStep has been sponsoring Patrick Lefevere’s team for over two decades, and its headquarters eventually began doubling as the location for the squad’s pre-race press conference. In time, the Friday afternoon pilgrimage to this industrial park just off the N43 near Waregem simply became a part of the rhythm of the Ronde.

The congregation is smaller this time in comparison with years past. The ongoing squeezing of media budgets is a factor, of course, but so too are the competing attractions. Tadej Pogacar’s press conference, fifteen minutes away, was the main draw on Friday afternoon.

Yet even amid their difficulties on the cobbles this season, Soudal-QuickStep still command an audience on the Friday before the Ronde. They have won this race eight times in the past 18 years, after all, and their current travails are even more newsworthy when juxtaposed against that imposing tradition.

QuickStep is this year celebrating 25 years in cycling sponsorship and, to mark the occasion, the showroom is decorated with a small shrine of jerseys from the past quarter of a century. The relics of victories past are displayed to inspire, but they might also feel like an admonishment to a Classics unit struggling to live up to that weighty history.

During Alex Ferguson’s long, glorious tenure as Manchester United manager, they used to refer to spells like this as ‘cracked badge weeks.’ After a run of defeats, the tabloids tended to illustrate the moment of turmoil by mocking up an image of the club crest split in half on their back pages. In response, a cranky, siege mentality would take hold in the dressing room until the crisis passed.

In Wielsbeke on Friday afternoon, mind, no such tension was palpable when the Soudal-QuickStep riders arrive for their meeting with the press. 

Wilfried Peeters may have a reputation as the gruff sergeant major of Lefevere’s outfit, but he isn’t barking any orders here. Instead, he stands joking breezily with Kasper Asgreen as they wait for the show to begin.

Perhaps they’re laughing at the rumour, which inexplicably gained currency on social media the previous day, that Remco Evenepoel would be parachuted into the Tour of Flanders line-up to ‘save’ their cobbled Classics campaign.

Evenepoel, it should be noted, has never hidden a profound aversion to riding on cobblestones, but the story still bounced around the internet until Het Nieuwsblad pointed out that the world champion had boarded a plane bound for Tenerife on Thursday morning to continue his preparation for the Giro d’Italia.

Still, the very idea was itself indicative of the Soudal-QuickStep’s current malaise. 

While Evenepoel has shone elsewhere this year, the Classics squad’s results have been indifferent: 6th at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, 9th at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, 30th at Strade Bianche, 11th at Milan-San Remo, 3rd at Brugge-De Panne, 16th at the E3 Saxo Classic, 14th at Gent-Wevelgem and 7th at Dwars door Vlaanderen. 

Even allowing for the relative lack of additions to the team’s Classics unit in recent seasons, the drop-off is stark.

Faith

The press conference begins once Lefevere, Peeters and the seven riders of the Ronde selection file into a back room and onto a small stage showcasing QuickStep products. Unilin Flooring president Ruben Desmet delivers the opening remarks, insisting they are “in celebration mode” as they mark the 25th anniversary of their cycling sponsorship.

When Lefevere takes the microphone, he repeats his traditional refrain about only tallying the final balance for the Spring after Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The cobbles, though, are part of the DNA of his team and, Julian Alaphilippe aside, none of the men to his left will be racing in Liège. For them, the next two Sundays - the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix - are all that count.

“These guys have to save the honour of the team,” Lefevere says, though he strikes an upbeat note. “They have until Roubaix, and I really think they can do it.”

Even though Alaphilippe was ill in Harelbeke and Dwars door Vlaanderen offered mixed messages regarding his recovery, the Frenchman is the obvious leader for Soudal-QuickStep. When the (laminate) floor is opened for questions, most are directed towards him.

“We’re certainly not the favourites, but that doesn’t mean we’re laying down arms,” Alaphilippe says. 

“We had higher expectations for results on the Classics this year, but voilà. We’ll give the maximum on Sunday. The pressure isn’t necessarily higher than before, because we always want to do well in every race we do.”

On his first Tour of Flanders appearance in 2020, the then-world champion was in the winning break with Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel only to crash out when he clipped a motorbike. Although Alaphilippe has won plenty in the years since, including a second rainbow jersey, Van Aert and Van der Poel have been operating at a different level so far in 2023.

“The level is higher and higher every year, but it’s hard to compare one edition to the next,” Alaphilippe says. 

“In 2020, it was a special set of circumstances, at the end of the season, just after the Worlds. It’s certain they’re at a top level, but I don’t know if they’re stronger now than they were then.”

Kasper Asgreen is the only past Ronde winner in the Soudal-QuickStep team, and he knows what it takes to beat Van der Poel on this terrain, having overwhelmed him in the two-up sprint in Oudenaarde in 2021. Two years on, however, Asgreen is well short of his best, having ended his 2022 season early due to fatigue syndrome.

“I think it’s clear to see there’s a difference between where I am now and where I was last year or two years ago,” he says. “It’s been a long way back, longer than I expected, but I’m still improving every week. Let’s hope the legs are there on Sunday.”

Asgreen placed a fearless second on his Ronde debut in 2019, when he slotted seamlessly into a QuickStep team high on confidence and in the middle of its imperial phase on the cobbles. The atmosphere at the dinner table and aboard the team bus must feel altogether different now that Jumbo-Visma are the squad laying down the law.

“We need to accept that we don’t have the strength to necessarily dictate the race, and I think once you accept that, you can race in a different way,” Asgreen says. 

“We can still be competitive, and we can still end up winning the race. Right now, the important thing is not to let it get to us, the fact that we don’t have the strength that we used to have. Because if we lose faith in ourselves, for sure we won’t have a result.”

Taking on the 'yellows'

In years past, however, the team could approach this weekend armed with clear-eyed certainty rather than guided by mere faith. This time around, Jumbo-Visma – with five Classic wins through four different riders – are the squad who line up in Bruges assured by their recent performances.

“I don’t know if you know, but I like boxing,” Lefevere says. “We’ve taken a few blows, but we haven’t been killed. They’re the same team who won two years ago Nieuwsblad, Harelbeke, Flanders and Flèche, so I don’t see a big difference.

“Ok, did Van Aert improve? Yes. Is his team strong? Yes. But I refuse to believe that this team – we call them ‘yellows’ – are stronger than these guys here. It’s maybe a little bit in the mind. If we start like we are beaten already, then we can stay at home playing cards. But everything can happen at the Tour of Flanders. I’m not feeling beaten before the start, for sure not.”

Before the question-and-answer sessions draws to a close, the seven riders in the Ronde line-up are asked to describe the race in one word. “Aggressive,” says Asgreen. “Crazy,” offers Florian Sénéchal. Yves Lampaert is the last in the line and he grimaces: “Sufferfest.”

For years, Soudal-QuickStep have been the team doling out that suffering. This year, the pain is being inflicted upon them by others – those elusive ‘yellows,’ for the most part – and there is little indication that the situation will change on Sunday. 

Lefevere, however, refuses to draw a line under the Spring just yet.

“It’s not fair to judge them already. If my memory is good, we still have this race, Scheldeprijs and Paris-Roubaix to come,” he says back in the show room, where he helps to cut a cake to celebrate QuickStep’s anniversary. 

“Imagine if we win Flanders and Roubaix, who will speak about Waregem, with all respect? The cards are still in our hands.”

Failing that, of course, Lefevere's Spring may yet find a saviour. Evenepoel, currently labouring atop Mount Teide, will come down from the volcano in time for Liège-Bastogne-Liège, after all. 

Whatever happens on Sunday, he still has reason to believe.