After his recent serious bouts with illness, Patrick Lefevere still isn’t back to 100%, but he’s well enough to be back at the races, joining the team he managed for over two decades, Soudal-QuickStep, at the UAE Tour.
Donning a team-branded white long-sleeve shirt, brown shorts and a blue trilby hat, the team’s honorary executive board member still stood out among the riders. And after they’ve failed to yet take a win after 37 days – the longest wait for a season maiden victory in their 23-year history – Lefevere urged patience.
In years gone by, QuickStep’s reputation of having great sprinters has typically got them off to a flying start, with the likes of Tom Boonen, Mark Cavendish and Sam Bennett getting things going for when Lefevere was in charge, but now under the leadership of Jurgen Foré, the wait must go on, but perhaps not for much longer.
He revealed to La Dernière Heure Sport‘s podcast last month that “I thought I was going to die. Twice, I told my wife that it was all over for me,” after an abscess and suffering from two bouts of septicemia, which forced him into some serious lifestyle changes.
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