Like all religious holidays, the Tour of Flanders has its holy places and its rituals. Some of the sacred sites are obvious, like the Kwaremont, the Paterberg or the Grote Markt in Bruges. Others, like the laminate flooring showroom in Wielsbeke, are more esoteric.
QuickStep has been sponsoring Patrick Lefevere’s team for over two decades, and its headquarters eventually began doubling as the location for the squad’s pre-race press conference. In time, the Friday afternoon pilgrimage to this industrial park just off the N43 near Waregem simply became a part of the rhythm of the Ronde.
The congregation is smaller this time in comparisons with years past. The ongoing squeezing of media budgets is a factor, of course, but so too are the competing attractions.
Tadej Pogacar’s press conference, fifteen minutes away, was the main draw on Friday afternoon.
Yet even amid their difficulties on the cobbles this season, Soudal-QuickStep still command an audience on the Friday before the Ronde. They have won this race eight times in the past 18 years, after all, and their current travails are even more newsworthy when juxtaposed against that imposing tradition.
QuickStep is this year celebrating 25 years in cycling sponsorship and, to mark the occasion, the showroom is decorated with a small shrine of jerseys from the past quarter of a century. The relics of victories past are displayed to inspire, but they might also feel like an admonishment to a Classics unit struggling to live up to that weighty history.
During Alex Ferguson’s long, glorious tenure as Manchester United manager, they used to refer to spells like this as ‘cracked badge weeks.’ After a run of defeats, the tabloids tended to illustrate the moment of turmoil by mocking up an image of the club crest split in half on their back pages. In response, a cranky, siege mentality would take hold in the dressing room until the crisis passed.
In Wielsbeke on Friday afternoon, mind, no such tension was palpable when the Soudal-QuickStep riders arrive for their meeting with the press.
Wilfried Peeters may have a reputation as the gruff sergeant major of Lefevere’s outfit, but he isn’t barking any orders here. Instead, he stands joking breezily with Kasper Asgreen as they wait for the show to begin.
Perhaps they’re laughing at the rumour, which inexplicably gained currency on social media the previous day, that Remco Evenepoel would be parachuted into the Tour of Flanders line-up to ‘save’…
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