Thus we come to the most winning team in the World Tour. And thus we begin the arduous task of keeping this preview short. An arduous task indeed, for this is the team that contains Julian Alaphilippe the current World Champion, Zdenek Stybar the former cyclocross champion, Sam Bennett the Irish sprinter won the Green Points Jersey at the 2020 Tour, Remco Evenepoel the young phenom, Joao Almeida the Portguese upstart in the 2020 Giro, Yves Lampaert, Dries Devenyns, Michael Morkov, Remi Cavagna, Kasper Asgreen, Fabio Jakobsen, Iljo Keisse, Alvaro Hodeg, Tim Declercq, and James Knox….and that is before we factor in the new transfers. Of course this is the Belgian team under the leadership and management of the mighty deep-bass-ed Patrick Lefevere. How renowned he is at assembling such winning teams on such a tight budget. Quickstep, the ever-loyal Belgian flooring company, and Deceuninck, a windows company, continue to do a lions-share of the sponsorship this year as joint title sponsors, but they provide not the funds of an Ineos or Middle Eastern principality. And yet, Lefevere has created a team some 15 years old that continues to get the most out of its riders: at Quickstep you become part of a winning team and success breeds success. Every race, every stage, the Quickstep team sets out to win, and it is now the norm that they rack up more some 60 or 70 wins a season. And the ultimate tribute to Quickstep: when a top rider of the team commands more money Lefevere does not have, they are never as good with their next team. But let us get into the nitty gritty, let us dig into this 2021 lineup.
Let us start with Julian Alaphilippe, sure he comes first alphabetically, but we all know that is not why the Frenchman takes the top spot. He takes the pride of place on this list, because he is a proven champion and one of the hottest names in cycling. Where to start with the electric Musketeer Julian Alaphilippe? His career has been progressing extremely well over the past five years and in 2019 he won every cycling fan’s heart with his deep run in the Yellow Jersey at the Tour de France, like Hector of Troy he was ultimately vanquished in epic style only days from the finish of the race. In 2020, he did not look right before lockdown, and coming out he seemed slow to form. He took a Tour stage early and had another stint in Yellow, but it was nothing like 2019 for he seemed “off” the rest of the race. One week after the Tour we found out why: in Imola he won the World Champion’s Rainbow Jersey—his only real target of the season. Perhaps the Rainbows went to his head, because he proceeded to “Monumentally” blow up a thrilling Liege-Bastogne-Liege that was falling into place for him. At the end of the race he cut off Marc Hirschi (Team DSM) in the sprint only to sit up too early for Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) to beat him in a bike-throw at the line. He almost sat up too early again just a few days later against Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) at Brabantse Pijl. And in an impressive debut at the Tour of Flanders he proved he had to the legs to match Van Der Poel and Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), but he finished without a result as he crashed into a motorbike—it was a shame, but it seemed most thought it was Julian’s own fault. Thus we come to 2021 where he shall have a full Spring Classics campaign to show off the Rainbows, and then ride in the Grand Tours as well. I would love to see him on great form again for Flanders and this time he finish without crashing out, and then I’d like to see him take a proper shot at all three Ardennes Classics again: Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallone, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. For a Frenchman like him I do not see how the Giro could ever be a priority, so after Liege, rest and build up to the Tour as usual. He has already worn Yellow, he has already won the Polka-dots, he has already been most Combative, but who knows. I think the Muskeeter should show up there on his best form and just see how the race develops for him. Though perhaps after quick success for sponsors, he uses the Tour as preparation for the Olympic Road Race in Tokyo only 6 days after the finish in Paris just as it was in prep for Imola this year. After the Olympics, surely he should take aim at a Worlds repeat and stay on form for il Lombardia—a Monument he needs to win before his career is through. Our Musketeer has won the Rainbow Jersey and though he looks marvelous in it, that is now old news. Now he can recalibrate, and try to show it off well this season.
I speak next of what has become a premiere position is cycling: Quickstep’s top sprinter slot. A position formerly occupied by the famous names of Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), and Elia Viviani (Cofidis); the role was taken over last year by Irishman Sam Bennett. Perhaps he was not as dominant as Kittel, and maybe he did not even win as much as Viviani or Gaviria, but he did what almost none of the other sprinters have done—save one who wore not the Quickstep colors at the time. Sam Bennett defeated the mighty one, cycling’s Rockstar Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) at his bread-and-butter Points competition for the Tour de France’s Green Jersey. As good as he was two years ago, few would ever have predicted Bennett to be Quickstep’s top sprinter, let alone the man to finally snap Sagan’s Green Jersey domination. But here he is, winning in Green on the Champs-Elysees to boot—a feat not even his mentor the legendary Sean Kelly could accomplish! Add a Vuelta stage win to his two Tour stages and Green Jersey and you have a respectable haul of prizes in the shortened season. The only real dream left for Bennett must be to win Milan-Sanremo, and if the race stays together over the Poggio he’ll be on the right team for it this year. When talking about that top Quickstep sprinter, it is becoming apparent that it is the lead-out that breeds success and many different sprinters can simply be inserted, hence the success of the revolving-imported top sprinter and continued success of Fabio Jakobsen and Alvaro Hodeg. And the man that must be mentioned by name in that lead-out train is Michael Morkov, if cycling had good stats on “assists” he would have quite an impressive palmares. I cannot name anyone who has ever guided, set up, and launched more sprinters to stage success; his ability to read a race and move through the peloton is completely unrivalled. And since he has been mentioned, I must shout out the great hope that Fabio Jakobsen makes it back to winning ways to fully shake off that most devastating Tour of Poland crash—one of the worst in the history of the sport.
There is also another Quickstep rider coming back from injury. Yes, you know of whom I speak. The phenom conveniently produced in the heartland of Cyclingdom, the Belgian Remco Evenepoel. What an amazing start to the season 20-year-old Evenepoel had on both sides of lockdown: GC (General Classification) victories in San Juan, Algarve, Burgos, and Poland—all with increasingly respectable competition. Already a winner of the hilly San Sebastian Basque Country Classic in 2019, Remco went into il Lombardia with high hopes before his Giro d’Italia debut. What could halt such an amazing season, you say? Yes, yes, only literally falling off a multi-story bridge into a Lombardy valley. The crash was scary, he was lucky to be alive and he was out for the remainder of the season. But before the season was over, he was already itching and training to be back on the bike. May he be back to his best this year, for we all wish to see what he shall unleash at the Giro and in the Olympics: who can say what he shall be more dominant at, climbing or time trailing?
Then we must of course praise the soul of this team: their classics line up. As ever, some big names have been signed away, but it is of little consequence to these pure racers. Zdenek Stybar already has four or five big Classics to his name and more shall be expected of him. But the rider I eagerly wait to see make the biggest jump is John Deere Yves Lampaert, previously Belgian champion and twice winner of Dwars I expect and hope he takes a big cobbled classic this year. The other Classics arrows in the Quickstep quiver must be Kasper Asgreen, Remi Cavagna, and Florian Senechal: watch this counterattack to many wins after the peloton is spent chasing down Stybar or Lampaert like Niki Terpestra (Total Direct Energie) would do a few years ago when Tom Boonen was marked. They shall as ever have a wonderful supporting cast, it is difficult to tell who shall step up or if everyone will take their turn, but I mention two more by name: the Tractor Tim Declercq ever one of the most loyal domestiques keeping the breakaways in check for hundreds of kilometers in the middle of the stages, and of course Iljo Keisse who is still an excellent domestique going strong ever since that unforgettable 2012 Tour of Turkey finish (to be the subject of multiple future posts).
There are more young riders on the team, some like Joao Almeida and James Knox have already achieved Grand Tour success, and I am sure the other young ones shall step up to the plate and impress this season as well, when they take multiple unexpected stage victories. But there is one new transferred rider I must dwell on before this preview is through. Yes, I speak of the man that was my first favorite rider when I was getting “into” cycling, I speak of the town veteran Manx Missile Mark Cavendish. I was frightened and dragging my feet thinking I would have to write Cav’s Retirement Obituary so soon. Thankfully, this is not the case; when the news dropped I am sure all of us were surprised and taken aback. Cavendish has already done a three-year stint with Quickstep, but now he returns it seems by bringing on his own sponsorship. What the goals of the Manx Missile are this coming season are yet undetermined or at least unrevealed; for surely he shall not be the top sprinter, let alone even have more than a miniscule chance of making their Tour team to chase the coveted 34 stage victories record. But from what I can tell, Cav feels or knows he is not finished, he has more to give and here is an excellent team to help him achieve a proper retirement sendoff…or even revive his career.
I could talk about Quickstep for hours, but hopefully this shall suffice for now as I continue previewing the other teams. But a final thought: I think the uniform is improved this year. I thought last year the white top with the weird “overalls” look was tacky from the start. They have yet to give up on the overalls idea that I find to be a clunker, but at least now it is much more subtle with another a lighter shade of blue across the chest. In fact, I find both shades of blue aesthetically pleasing and so I hope this uniform shall grow on me a little bit more.
Cycling Odysseys 