Lefevere on Evenepoel: "This win shows that we didn't make a mistake investing in him"

Patrick Lefevere has from the start been one of the great believers in the talent that is Remco Evenepoel, and the young Belgian has been one of his protégés. Hence it was no surprise that when Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team took the win at this Sunday's Liège-Bastogne-Liège, there were big celebrations from the team who have had until that point a very negative balance in the classics campaign.

Talking to the media after the race, Lefevere said: "We went all-out for Remco because we knew he was strong. We already saw that in La Flèche Wallonne where he took Julian Alaphilippe to the front of the peloton three or four times... That wasn't his specialty and Julian could not always follow. Here we were planning the opposite, with Julian setting up Remco."

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"This win shows that we didn't make a mistake investing in him. We've always had full confidence in him, in spite of the criticism he receives. We knew he could do it but being able to achieve this is something else," he added.

As (bad) luck would have it, Alaphilippe wouldn't reach the Côte de la Redoute where Evenepoel crashed, as he was involved in the massive pile-up late in the race, having suffered serious injuries as a result of it. Nevertheless, the team carried out their initial plan, with Evenepoel attacking over the top of the penultimate climb and holding off the chasing peloton. "When you see him today attacking over the top to escape so easily and then dropping Armirail, well that says it all. Remco knows this course like the back of his hand – every centimeter is familiar to him. That helped, of course," he said.

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"We had hope, but then the chase got organized with three from Bahrain and three from Movistar. They reduced the gap to 16 or 17 seconds, and we had some palpitations for a moment. But we said that if he gets to the top with 15 seconds, they won't catch him," Lefevere detailed.

Was it overall an average or good spring for Quick-Step? The answer may be subjective for each individual, however team boss has given his answer: "Yes, of course I am satisfied."

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