Soudal-QuickStep are drinking in the last chance saloon of the 2023 cobbled Classics this Sunday, with the Belgian team bidding for their seventh Paris-Roubaix title and first major Classic of the season.
The 'big two' of Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert are the top favourites to haul the cobblestone trophy above their head in the Roubaix velodrome. However, Patrick Lefevere's team are perennial contenders at the race, and with the likes of Kasper Asgreen and Yves Lampaert heading up the squad, few are prepared to totally count them out.
A cobbled Classics season without a big win isn't totally alien to QuickStep – they blanked in 2010 and 2013 – and ahead of the final big race on the pavé, Lefevere said that it's not the end of the world if they were to miss out.
"A podium, eh?" Lefevere told Cyclingnews about his hopes for his team in an exclusive interview at the start of the Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift in Denain on Saturday.
"If not, then the world will go on," he added philosophically. "Then we go to the Walloon Classics the week after and we try something else at Amstel, Flèche and Liège. We'll see."
But the spring so far hasn't all been about the Classics, of course, even if the cobbles are Soudal-QuickStep's bread and butter, their 'home ground'.
The team has racked up 18 wins so far in 2023, including Remco Evenepoel's UAE Tour victory, Julian Alaphilippe's Faun-Ardèche Classic win, and Fabio Jakobsen's stage at Tirreno-Adriatico. Lefevere keeps a close eye on his team's progress and has all the statistics to hand.
"On the other hand, I look to yesterday because when we look at Itzulia Basque Country we have our 19th second place and I know nobody that did better.
"I also count the Tour du Rwanda," he laughed, noting that Ethan Vernon's stage wins with QuickStep's development team should count towards the win total.
Lefevere said that morale among the team had ebbed at times during the past month, with Tim Merlier's Nokere Koerse win and Lampaert's podium at the Classic Brugge-De Panne the highlights of a troubled Classics season so far.
He noted, though, that illness and injury has affected the team over the past month and mooted the idea of a 'bubble' style group for future spring campaigns.
"After Gent-Wevelgem the morale was not that good," Lefevere said. "They were a little bit like beaten dogs like I said to them, but I think we can't sing the same song every year. We have a lot of people injured, sick.
"I said that maybe next year we have to change something. I prefer that everybody stays in hotel for two weeks. Not just with seven riders but with nine if there are changes between the races.
"They are in the hotel, so you avoid bringing in people who are sick – if they have kids at home and kids come home from the class with COVID, there you go. And it's only two weeks away, so if you cannot sacrifice two weeks..."
As well as taking in the men's race, and hopefully witnessing that elusive top result to end the cobbled season, Lefevere is also at the women's race on Saturday for the first time as part-owner of the AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep team.
He praised the race scheduling – which sees the women's and men's races held on separate days, in contrast to the other major spring Classics.
"I was never in the race before because it's also my first year as a co-owner of the team," Lefevere said. "It's also the only race - if I'm not wrong - where the women are riding on Saturday and the men on Sunday, so otherwise it's difficult to do the races at the same time.
"I like it because it gives me the opportunity to see both, and I don't think the girls mind with maybe a little bit less stress."
The Belgian Continental squad are led in Roubaix by Romy Kasper and directeur sportif, 2001 Roubaix winner, Servais Knaven.
Lefevere said that he was disappointed that illness and injury had also struck the women's squad, though he was upbeat about the team's chances of making the race on the cobbles.
"I'm a little bit sad in one way because we only have five riders. Three or four are sick and some are injured and of course, some girls want to do the Ardennes Classics.
"I think we may have ambitions, yes," he concluded without giving anything away on the team's plans for the afternoon.
