"Evenepoel has to position himself, and he is simply not as good at that as Pogacar and Vingegaard" - Thijs Zonneveld worries about Quick-Step's weakness against rival teams

Soudal - Quick-Step is a strong team but it can't be argued at this point that it can be a match to Team Visma | Lease a Bike and UAE Team Emirates - XRG (specially with their Tour de France blocks here present at the Criterium du Dauphiné). Thijs Zonneveld argues that this difference in team power will eventually lead to difficult situations for the Belgian.

He mentioned the episode on stage 1, where Evenepoel closed the gap to the front group in impressive fashion by himself, but this shouldn't have been necessary in the first place. "He wasn't in a good position on that climb, but how hard he closed that gap," Zonneveld said on his In de Waaier podcast. "Like a ball, that was very impressive. But that positioning will also be a problem during the Tour de France."

With Visma and UAE having some of the very best classics riders in the world in pure domestique roles it will be difficult to battle along when it comes to fighting for position. "His team is just a little less than those really big teams that have more budget and therefore more good riders."

Specially, taking into consideration that during the Tour, the team will be splitting focus between the Olympic Champion and Tim Merlier who will be hunting stage wins in the sprints. "I think they will have trouble. Also because they are partly going to ride for a sprinter. There will soon be stages where a large part of his team will be dropped."

"Then Evenepoel has to position himself, and he is simply not as good at that as Pogacar and Vingegaard. That was also the case on that climb in the first stage of the Dauphiné. But if you can knit it straight like that, then you can say that the form is good in any case."