Stijn Steels has been a cyclist since December. Now the 33-year-old occasionally passes by De Tribune. The last 3 years he raced for Patrick Lefebvre’s Quick Step team. What’s going on this spring with his former team?
Soudal – Quick-Step has yet to play in the Spring Classics, although team boss Patrick Lefebvre is used to being rated after Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Stiles: “It’s a shame. And I find it hard to explain.”
“They ride very well in the Basque Country, the Remco team is doing well, but the spring classic is not so good.” And that’s exactly the terrain you associate the Lefevere team with.
“If you look at the names individually, they’re really good drivers. You always think next time he’ll be good…but they just have to start from scratch, I think.”
“They have to sit down with everyone from the staff and the riders and the coaches and everything…and see: ‘What is really going on? Where can we improve? How are we going to do it differently?’”
“They’ll have to adjust their racing strategy a bit. What speaks to them is that they still have the classic team mode. The anticipation is very tough for them. Still: fast attacks, everyone’s on the wheel. But that’s how they should do it, because they don’t have one.” of these three.”
“You really have to add Remco, but it’s aimed at the big tours.”
“And then they have a problem: if they start the race too early, you don’t have the possibility to send someone like Lambert, Senchal, Asgren or Ballerini forward, because the big guys start too early.”
Anticipation is very difficult for them. Still: Fast attacks, whoever’s at the wheel. But they have to do it anyway, because they don’t have any of those three.
Steels thought Soudal-Quick Step drove a good track at E3. “They decide the force on Tyneberg themselves, and they walk away with about 20 guys and there’s 4 guys with them. Then you think they’ve got it back. But the big guys keep going and they have to get through.”
“You can’t say the will isn’t there, they’re physically lacking at that moment. Then you just have to think about how to solve that.”
It was more than bad luck, said sporting director Wilfried Peters after Roubaix. If you are racing at the front, the chances of accidents are reduced. “It’s easy to say,” says Stills. “Everyone knows you have to sit at the front.”
“But if you start to lose confidence a little bit, you might end up in that role a little bit.”
“I still deeply sympathize with these guys. And when I see Asgreen fall at the start, see Sénéchal aiming for something and you’re only 2nd in the race. Where should you start? The courage to do something is gone, a little expensive.”
“Asgreen and Lampaert were good, but…”
Two years ago, Asgreen won the Tour, and since then things have been less and less for the Dane. Wim De Coninck read here and there that Asgreen could not make the same sacrifices as Van Aert. “But that’s definitely not true,” Stiles firmly defends.
“He’s obsessed with everything: nutrition and training. Asgreen is more like someone you have to slow down.”
Asgreen certainly wasn’t bad in Paris-Roubaix either. “Sunday it was too late after his financial failure, but he managed to get back. He was well off in the woods, if this accident hadn’t been there, both Eve and Casper are with us.”
“But you lie on the ground and you have to say again that you were unlucky. Yves too: he’s the first one who couldn’t go on. Yves was at the helm of the guys driving to the Van der Poel/Van Aert group. If you had to start from scratch over Those stones, you lose half a minute. Then you have to say afterward: You were good again, but….”
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