“We will always be a team that wants to be competitive in the Classics” - Tom Steels on Soudal Quick-Step ahead of the Flemish ‘Holy Week’

Although the main focus of Soudal Quick-Step’s season is set to be Remco Evenepoel’s attempt at the Tour de France in the summer, the cobbled Classics are still a priority for the Belgian team despite back-to-back lacklustre seasons in the Flemish one-day races.

The team last won the Ronde van Vlaanderen in 2021 with Kasper Asgreen, but since then they have been nowhere to see in many of the Flemish Classics, with Tim Merlier’s consecutive victories at Danilith Nokere Koerse being their only successes in a cobbled one-day race in the last couple of years.

This has led many to think that the team is now beginning to move away from their history as a Classics team and more towards being a GC team built around Remco Evenepoel. However, in an interview with WielerFlits, sports director Tom Steels dispelled that notion, as he said “I think we still carry the classics in our hearts”.

On their team for the upcoming races, the Belgian went on to say “we have a lot of potential among the young riders to score high again. But we must not detract from the team we have. I think it is still a strong block, with which you can go in many directions. We will always be a team that wants to be competitive in the Classics”.

Looking ahead to this season-defining block of racing, Steels stated “from now until Paris-Roubaix is a bit of a week of truth. Everyone knows that there are some riders who stand out. But it is up to us, as a group, to do something about it. We must be modest, but also not allow ourselves to be pushed into a corner. We have the resources to do something about that. We see our riders growing. I hope that we will be very competitive in the period that we need to be, so we are looking forward to the upcoming Classics”.