Patrick Lefevere talks about Asgreen and Evenepoel's ambitions in weekly column

Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team manager Patrick Lefevere was on the road watching Dwars door Vlaanderen as captured by the cameras, but he has been paying attention to the team in a week where the tension is increasingly building up towards the Tour des Flandres.

On his weekly column at the Het Niewsblad newspaper, Lefevere has talked about some of the topics that have marked the current week, leading up to the Tour des Flandres, such as Wout van Aert's last-minute forced absence: “I would really rather have seen it differently. For Wout himself, and because Jumbo-Visma would certainly have checked the course. Now that responsibility lies with Alpecin-Fenix ​​and, to a lesser extent, also with us."

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Quick-Step is taking to the start of De Ronde tomorrow with the defending champion Kasper Asgreen. Although the Dane seems well pointed towards the cobbles, the team will lack it's traditional depth as many of the classics block riders have fell ill over the last few weeks.

“I don't think we should present ourselves as beaten dogs in the Ronde after Waregem [Dwars door Vlaanderen]. We were certainly not bad. Our number of sick riders has now risen to eleven, more than a third of the team. We will not stand at the wailing wall: Israel-Premier Tech does not even have enough riders to start in the Ronde,” he added.

“The final report of the spring will follow after Liège. We go to the Tour of Flanders with Kasper Asgreen and Florian Sénéchal, who are both fit. In two weeks, Stybar and Yves Lampaert will also be in Paris-Roubaix. Then we have Remco and world champion Alaphilippe [at the Ardennes classics]. Few teams have such luxury. I'm pretty sick today, but I'm certainly not a pessimist," Lefevere was quick to point out.

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As for Remco Evenepoel, who has been training at Mount Teide this week in preparation for the final block of racing in the spring, Lefevere has also had words concerning him: "He is definitely in shape and sticks to his program. For Milano-Sanremo I did think of Remco this year. A race without too much wringing, where we were not very close to the leaders and which also fitted into his program after Tirreno-Adriatico. But with Remco we stick to his planned program: the Tour of the Basque Country, the Brabantse Pijl, the Flèche Wallone and Liège.”

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Evenepoel will return to competition this monday at the Itzulia Basque Country where he'll be making his final preparations towards the Ardennes classics alongside Julian Alaphilippe.

Lefevere concluded: “He has worked well in the past few weeks at altitude training in Tenerife. This is witnessed by Strava-KOM on the climb to Masca. Four kilometers uphill at more than ten percent. Remco improved the climbing record of Michal Kwiatkowski and Wout van Aert by more than a minute. That says absolutely nothing about what he will be able to do in the Ardennes classics, but it does mean that he is at least in shape.”