Evenepoel "doesn't take steps, he makes jumps" Patrick Lefevere says

Patrick Lefevere has long criticized the presence of Julian Alaphilippe at the World Championships, however the team manager of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team still went on to see one of his riders take the world title.

In a column for Het Nieuwsblad, Lefevere has talked about how he's kept up with the men's Elite Road Race. "When I started watching, Remco was already in the leading group. If he's good, he can't put it away. Everyone saw that he was playing with the pedals. I hoped he wouldn't go too early because you could see that it was already starting to itch at sixty kilometers from the finish. He found out who he wanted to go with and Alexey Lutsenko was a good companion. I thought he was only going to ride him off on the last climb, but he didn't even wait for that."

Evenepoel soloed to the race win, to take the rainbow stripes off the back of teammate Julian Alaphilippe who didn't have his best form and couldn't compete for the win. "And I'm normally never nervous. That's really not my habit. I had sent Remco a message a few days ago. He sent back that if his legs stayed that way, he wouldn't be far off. Then you still have to do it and it can also be disappointing of course," he shared.

Asked if his young talent would be suffering from the further pressure that he'll be on after this win, Lefevere commented: "That was already so much bullshit. On the other hand, you can't ignore the fact that he is doing everything faster than we expected."

"He wins his first Grand Tour earlier than expected. That boy doesn't take steps, he makes jumps. It seems like he is taking two hurdles at once. We'll let it all sink in for a while and then start planning for next year," he finished.