"We're on the right track" - Kasper Asgreen confident in himself and Quick-Step ahead of Paris-Roubaix

Soudal - Quick-Step seem to be moving into place. Outside of the cobbled classics the team has had a good season, but in this terrain even without their dominating capacity results are expected of the Belgian squad. Paris-Roubaix will be the final opportunity to take a big result, and Kasper Asgreen is confident that he can make a difference.

"I think a lot of things have gone wrong, both tactically and then we've also had a lot of riders sick and had to make changes in the roster. I think in Flanders we finally got it right and I ended up racing the final. So we're on the right track and we are getting better and better," Asgreen said in a pre-race press conference. "I think we need to continue the way we did in Flanders and hopefully, I'll be there again – and if I can have a teammate or two with me, even better."

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In Flanders the team did something they hadn't over the other cobbled classics, to race on the attack and not be on the back foot. Tim Merlier joined the day's breakaway and Kasper Asgreen attacked early on and was in contention for victory for a long time. It was a strong race where the Dane also showed his best legs this spring. He rode to seventh, but there was no criticism on the team's performance this time around.

"Flanders is a much more explosive effort than Roubaix, so with my current condition, Roubaix should be a lot better. Those sustained high-power efforts are easier with your base condition. Going deep at the end of a long race is something I can clearly do otherwise I wouldn't be in the finale of a 280km race like Flanders," he continues. "So I am confident for Sunday that I have the shape and ability to do that. But first you have to get there and the last three times I did Roubaix I never seemed to get it right so that will be the focal point first of all."

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The Belgian team has several strong classics rider, but in the climbs they could never match the best. Without them however they have much better possibilities here. Asgreen has Yves Lampaert and Florian Sénéchal who are specialists in this terrain alongside him, as well as Tim Merlier and Davide Ballerini who are powerhouse sprinters who can tackle this terrain.

Of course however it's not just about the legs on Roubaix, a lot will be down to avoiding crashes and mechanicals. "Generally I'm not a big believer in bad luck. Bad luck always seems to find the same riders – you need to look a little bit at the way you're riding maybe so you need to work on that. That's why I've spent a lot of time to go and recon the cobbles and work on my technique on how I ride the cobbles and so on," he concluded.

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