Belgian superteam’s lack of 2011 success pushes its team car further back in the race convoy
Quick Step’s dearth of success on the road this season is making its effects felt in all kinds of areas; the one most noticeable to the team’s sports director Wilfried Peeters right now though, according to Sporza, is the way his car is slipping further and further back in the race convoy. With positions in the line decided by rankings, the distance between Peeters and the action is steadily growing.
“It’s very annoying, but luckily it’s the riders that win races, not the cars,” he told the Gazet van Antwerpen.
Quick Step is the only one of the 18 ProTeams that has yet to score a single point in the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour. None of its riders, nor the team itself, is even listed in the rankings, having failed to post a result in any of the series’ events [Santos Tour Down Under, Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-Sanremo] so far.
The team has just two victories to show for the season so far: Tom Boonen in stage 1 of the Tour of Qatar, and Gert Steegmans in the Nokere Korse last week.
“With a view to the rankings we had hoped to get a place in the top ten of Milano-Sanremo,” he explained, “but that was unfortunately not to be. We need to do well on Sunday [in Gent-Wevelgem] in the races that count for the first time.”
With this Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen [Race across Flanders – Ed] opening the long, cobbled classics phase of the season, Peeters hopes that Steegmans’ Nokere win is the start of better times to come; looking ahead to Saturday’s E3 Prijs Vlaanderen and, more importantly, Sunday’s Gent-Wevelgem, which is part of the WorldTour.
“If not then it becomes a real problem,” he said. “It’s true that with [Tom] Boonen, [Sylvain] Chavanel and [Niki] Terpstra we have three irons in the fire, but it is what it is, we have to make the best of it.
“This is symptomatic of the problems that have been haunting us all year; it’s time that it stopped,” he added.
Quick Step’s team for Dwars door Vlaanderen is one of its strongest for the cobbled races and features most, if not all, of the team that will represent the team at the Ronde van Vlaanderen at the start of next month.
“We’re coming to the start with a proven, competitive squad,” he said yesterday, as the team was announced. “Dwars door Vlaanderen is the first in a number of important races in which we want to stand out. Boonen is showing good signs of growth, as is Steegmans, who won at Nokere.
“We’re also expecting high level performances from the rest of the team,” he added, “this is a race for major players.”
Quick Step team for Dwars door Vlaanderen:
Tom Boonen, Sylvain Chavanel, Gerald Ciolek, Dries Devenyns, Andreas Stauff, Gert Steegmans, Niki Terpstra and Kevin Van Impe.