Reduced Soudal - Quick-Step's Pieter Serry: “I try to assist Ilan as best I can"

It has been very quiet in the Soudal Quick-Step team bus during the Giro d'Italia for a week now. The Belgian formation already had to say goodbye to no less than six riders. Only Ilan Van Wilder and Pieter Serry are still in the race.

The Belgian team has now been reduced to two riders, two team managers, two mechanics and one cook. There is absolutely no question of a hosanna mood. “You should not underestimate that,” sports director Klaas Lodewyck outlines the situation in conversation with Het Nieuwsblad. “The guys prepared for the Giro, are doing everything they can to be ready. And then you go into the last week with two riders. It's not easy mentally. You are confronted with it all day.”

“Two boys at the table in the morning at breakfast. Ride to the start with two bikes on the roof. Two riders at the team meeting… We are still trying to make the best of it. The tactical discussion is a bit shorter – 'Pieter, you stay with Ilan' – but in the race discussion it doesn't matter whether two or eight riders listen to it. It must be well prepared. We also draw up a 'bottle plan' every day, in which we try to be in four or five places with food and drink.”

And the team still has something to fight for. Van Wilder makes a strong impression uphill, finished sixth in the mountain stage to Monte Bondone and still has the prospect of a top 10 ranking in the final classification. “I try to assist Ilan as best I can,” says Serry. “On Monte Bondone I was able to stay with him until the last twenty kilometers. It's nice that we can go for a goal together. If we didn't have that, it would be really bad now."