"It's not that team anymore. The Wolfpack spirit is gone" - Tom Boonen critical of Soudal - Quick-Step's spring Classics performances

Soudal - Quick-Step, once the dominant force of Classics, is now overshadowed by number of teams on the rise, Visma-LAB, Alpecin-Deceuninck and even UAE Team Emirates, to name a few. Tom Boonen was once part of the Belgian team, winning (not just) the Paris-Roubaix with the Wolfpack four times. On Sunday, another triumph is not likely, Boonen is honest in an interview with RTBF.

"It's strange, really strange. After all, they still have Yves Lampaert, Kasper Asgreen and Julian Alaphilippe," Boonen lists the potential leaders of Wolfpack's Classics team.

"In fact, it's not that team anymore. The Wolfpack spirit is gone. Last fall's rumors about a merger with Jumbo-Visma created a feeling of uncertainty that was not easy to manage internally. However, I never thought I would see what we are seeing now...," said Boonen.

With the rise of Remco Evenepoel, the team has notably invested in its climbers structure. "I come back to what I said earlier: the events at the end of 2023 have caused the team to explode! In fact, we now have two different teams within Quick Step and that is not good. You have the team around Remco and on the other hand the classics team that wonders what will happen next, with the feeling that it has no future in this structure... This story is going to end badly," he concludes.