Traditionally,
Soudal - Quick-Step are always one of the major players on Opening Weekend in Belgium. This year however, they had just a sole top-10 placing at
Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne and no one even in the top-20 at
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
“Somehow we have to be happy that we are not completely defeated, but competing against that force majeure is not easy,"
Yves Lampaert reflected post-Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne, in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad, full of praise for the dominant force of the weekend, Team Visma | Lease a Bike. "Hopefully we still have some margin. But at Visma they also come from heights. It works exactly differently for them than it does for us.”