Wilfried Peeters: Winning with the best rider is easy

All the evidence points to another defeat for Soudal Quick-Step at this year’s Tour of Flanders but while the writing might be on the wall when it comes to most pundits and fans, sports director Wilfried Peeters isn’t willing to throw in the towel just yet.

There is certainly no getting away from the fact that the team - once a cobbled Classic dragonaut - has endured a dismal campaign so far with Tim Merlier eighth in Gent-Wevelgem and Yves Lampaert 29th in E3 Saxo Classic signifying the team’s best results in Belgium over the last week.

Julian Alaphilippe is short of form and fitness, while Kasper Asgreen, although formidable in the chase of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) in Gent-Wevelgem, has failed to register a top-ten all season. The Dane - the team’s last winner of a cobbled Monument back in Flanders 2021- represents some of the malaise that has fallen upon the Belgian team’s cobble-chasing core in recent years.

In Waregem, at the teams’ DS meeting ahead of Dwars door Vlaanderen, Peeters spoke with GCN about the landscape of the Spring Classics and the major players who had now usurped Soudal Quick-Step as the leading force.

“We can see maybe two or three blocks now. We have the teams of Wout van Aert, and Mathieu van der Poel, and Lidl-Trek is very strong, with more than one guy. Tactically, we need to change a little bit from the other years. Hopefully Kasper and Julian will be better next week,” the Belgian told GCN.

What’s clear is that Peeters’ team lack an out-and-out leader who can at this point match the best when the race reaches boiling point. Another tactic, of anticipating the key moves and attacking early, hasn’t paid dividends yet either. Still, the Belgian hinted that the team’s best hope was for an aggressive start, rather than waiting for the favourites to dictate the race in the closing stages.

“We don’t need to wait for the last time up the Kwaremont. One year we won with Gilbert and he won from a long way out. Maybe we can do that. We’ll try,” Peeters said.

Soudal Quick-Step’s status as a cobbled Classics superpower has certainly worn off. Peeters can list some of the greats, such as Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert, as some of the riders he has directed since he retired from pro cycling but according to the former Classics specialists, winning as the underdog is always the most satisfying position.

“I like to win when we’re not the favourites,” he told GCN.

“Winning with the best rider is easy. Maybe we don’t win but we’ll try. We know that from Gent-Wevelgem that we need another tactic than normal.”

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