"We will fight for the victory" in Flandres, Lefevere says despite recent illnesses

Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team manager Patrick Lefevere has spoken to the media ahead of what is one of the team's biggest goals for the season, the Tour des Flandres, and has talked about the team's current situation and ambitions towards the second monument of the season.

“We are not used to racing defensively. We have to accept this. We have 11 riders who are sick. Even me, I am home sick. We are hoping we can recover Sunday, and maybe if we are not 100 percent, we will fight for the victory," he said.

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Although defending champion Kasper Asgreen has shown form and quality in the last few races in Flandres, the team's normal collective strength has been absent as the team has suffered with illnesses that have been tearing the peloton apart since for the last month.

Lefevere added: “I always say that we will make the full report after Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and maybe it’s lucky for us, Paris-Roubaix comes one week later this year. I hope, I saw it in the past, I remember 2001, we didn't have one result and then at Paris-Roubaix we went 1-2-3, so you never know."

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Although the likes of Yves Lampaert, Florian Sénéchal and Zdenek Stybar will at the start in Antwerp, neither has shown glimpses of their best form yet this spring. Due to a Covid-19 infection just over a month ago, Davide Ballerini will not be at the start as he's also been struggling with form. With Mikkel Honoré also ill and Julian Alaphilippe focusing on the Ardennes classics this year, the Belgian team will have to race in a different way in order to succeed this Sunday.

“You can always learn off the difficult moments, so if later you can win, it makes a lot of difference for us,” Lefevere argued. “I always say panic is a bad advisor, I don’t want to see them race with stress. We have to be smarter but we are not used to racing like in this manner of waiting for others.”

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