Remco Evenepoel is the talisman that can save Soudal Quick-Step’s season at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. At least that’s the hope of team boss Patrick Lefevere, he revealed in his most recent column for Het Nieuwsblad.
“I spoke to Remco on the phone ” Lefevere wrote. “From Teams or Skype I already know enough. He told me he was in good shape. I told him ‘Keep it up! “
The 23-year-old world champion has been training in Tenerife and is a clear-cut favourite for La Doyenne, alongside Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates).
Lefevere warns against Evenepoel’s fans getting too carried away with optimism though, saying, “If I have to believe the people, Liège-Bastogne-Liège should no longer be ridden. Remco wins, huh. As if it were that simple.”
The same goes for the Giro d’Italia, he says, with team sponsors lining up to see what they seem to see as his inevitable victory.
“All team sponsors would also like to come to Italy for the last week… Remco wins the Giro, all the better. If that’s not the case, then so be it… It’s a big three-week race, isn’t it? Let us remain calm.”
Soudal-Quick Step’s lack of results so far in this Classics season has elicited many a shake of the head, but Lefevere argues that his team aren’t doing as badly as everyone likes to think.
“We Belgians look with a magnifying glass from here to Tokyo at the results of these races, but nevertheless we are fourth in the World Tour. So to speak,” Lefevere wrote.
That’s the sort of positive spin any politician would be proud of, for the reality is that a seventh place in the Tour of Flanders is the best result in a major Classics that Soudal has to its name. Last week’s Paris-Roubaix – once a race in which, along with Flanders, few would be able to see past ‘the Wolfpack’ for favourites – was an unmitigated disaster, with untimely punctures and crashes. Tim Merlier in 23rd was the team’s top finisher.
While Soudal-Quick Step may not be the cobbled Classics behemoth it once was, Evenepoel gives it already proven Grand Tour potential, as well as in major hilly one-day races like the World Championship and next weekend’s LBL. It also represents an awful lot of eggs in one basket.