Former Soudal-QuickStep team boss Patrick Lefevere admitted that he had a hard time fighting back his emotions when he watched Remco Evenepoel reach a historic milestone of 1,000 wins for the team on Wednesday in the time trial stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné.
Lefevere founded the Belgian WorldTour squad – then known as QuickStep-Davitamon in 2003, when Servais Knaven got the ball rolling for the team at the Tour of Qatar. Lefevere was the head of the team until December 31, 2024, handing over the reins of power to Jurgen Foré.
In part due to the scale of the achievement, inevitably, there has been some discussion regarding the exact total of victories taken to date. A handful of the team's wins have been struck from the official record, for one thing. Then, in some cases, deciding on a win's exact classification – dependent on a multiplicity of factors such as categories for races that have changed over the years, which types of races count, changes in UCI criteria and so on – is also a subject of ongoing debate.
But rather in the way mountains can gain or lose a few metres in height over the years, the achievement of getting to or even near that point of 1,000 wins remains a remarkable one all the same – particularly given the relative fragility of cycling's teams as a commercial model. So on Wednesday, Soudal-QuickStep logically celebrated their win count reaching four figures in style, with special commemorative t-shirts and caps being wheeled out at the Dauphiné's finish for the occasion.
"I felt a lot of emotions, because I think I'm only just beginning to understand what those 1,000 victories actually mean," Lefevere said according to Sporza.be. "Nobody has done this before us. They say: yes, Movistar also has 999, but that's since 1980.
"We did it from 2003, and then without the World Championships and Olympic titles of our riders, right.
"I don't get emotional easily, but I still had a lump in my throat today."
Watching Evenepoel take victory, Lefevere said that he had never imagined that a team could reach such a total.
"Would I have dared to think this? Not by a long shot. I didn't even expect that we would have a team for so long," he told Sporza.be.
"I have always worked hard for it. We had a dip in 2010-2011, but then we made some changes and owner Zdenek Bakala joined. That way we found the right path again and we break almost all records year after year.
“People only see the quantity, but the quality of our victories should not be forgotten". These include 22 Monuments, as well as the overall of the Vuelta a España in 2022, the first Grand Tour win for Belgium in 44 years, with Evenepoel.
Lefevere also said that he was not going to name a favourite amongst the victories, as to do so would be disrespectful to the riders, teams and back-up staff in general. But he did point out that Evenepoel had already promised him a dedication in the morning before the time trial, were he to win.
"He had already sent me a message this morning: 'If I win this, it's for you, patron'. And as he usually does, he kept his word once again.
"Am I happy that it's Remco? Actually, it should have been Tim Merlier in the Antwerp Port Classic this week, right?
"Then I would have been happy too, but this is indeed a different story. Remco winning a WorldTour race solo in his World Champion's jersey... It's the icing on the cake."
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