Among the questions posed to Soudal-QuickStep at the team press conference ahead of Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix was the straightforward ‘Who thinks he can win Paris-Roubaix?’
The squad joked among themselves as only Kasper Asgreen raised his hand initially, before four other riders eventually stuck theirs in the air after some coaxing among themselves.
There was a jovial atmosphere in the spacious showroom of team sponsor Renson, though after a brutally disappointing Spring Classics campaign for the Belgian squad there was a grain of truth in how the riders responded.
With two of this year’s Classics ‘big three’, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, lining up at the start in Compiègne, few pundits are confident in the team adding to their six cobble trophies, either.
But if they are to take their first title since 2019 on Sunday, adding a 62nd cobbled Classic victory in 20 years, then Asgreen stands out as the man most likely to triumph. Speaking to Cyclingnews, the 28-year-old Dane said things are looking up after a seventh place at the Tour of Flanders last weekend.
“I think a lot of things have gone wrong, both tactically and then we’ve also had a lot of riders sick and had to make changes in the roster,” Asgreen said, summing up his team’s Classics campaign. “I think in Flanders we finally got it right and I ended up racing the final.
“So we’re on the right track and we are getting better and better. I think we need to continue the way we did in Flanders and hopefully, I’ll be there again – and if I can have a teammate or two with me, even better.”
After a knee injury sustained at last year’s Tour de Suisse ruined the second half of his 2022 season, Agreen is now only just approaching his top form given his off-season was spent playing catch-up.
“It’s been a long process to come back,” he said. “We got the knee fixed last year during the fall, and I could restart my training in November as usual. But obviously when you have four months without structured training then it’s a big gap to make up all of a sudden.
“I was still working on building up the muscle mass in my left leg again after my injury, even though the knee was still fine. It’s been dragging on a little bit longer than we hoped for, but now at least the base condition seems to be finally there.
“Flanders is a much more explosive effort than Roubaix, so with my current condition, Roubaix should be a lot better. Those sustained high-power efforts are easier with your base condition.”
Still, he has…
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