Sports director critical of late moves
Gert Steegmans likes to attack, a trade that has brought him some criticism from the RadioShack team. The responsibles would rather see the Belgian save his energy for a sprint and then go all out. The teammates would be fully committed to Steegmans.
Sports Director Dirk Demol thinks that Steegmans doesn’t always do the best choices in the final of a race. “He doubts too much, which means the teammates don’t really know what to do,” Demol said to Het Belang van Limburg. “He needs to stop that attacking in the end,” Demol added.
The sports director would rather see him apply his fast legs in the final meters. “Gert has to wait for the sprint. Not one time did I give him the order to try something in the final kilometers.”
Steegmans has obtained some of his biggest victories in straight sprints. Even then, it wasn’t always according to plan. In the 2007 Tour de France, the he was supposed to lead out Tom Boonen in stage two into Gent, Belgium. But Steegmans was so strong on the uphill finish that Boonen could not come around, making it an epic one-two for the then Quick Step teammates.
His biggest win so far came a year later, when he took the final stage of the Tour de France on the famous Champs-Élysées in Paris. This one was also a bunch sprint.
Plagued by back problems last year, he seemed to return to full strength in 2010. In his first race with his new RadioShack team, he finished second – in a sprint. He was only beaten by André Greipel and left riders like Jürgen Roelandts, Greg Henderson, Baden Cooke or Robbie McEwen behind him. But the rest of the season didn’t look so great for him.
Demol explained Steegmans’s mistake. “After an acceleration you have to reintegrate into the peloton.” This takes away strengths and concentration for making quick and good decisions needed to have an optimal sprint. Steegmans would have the backing of his teammates. “Everybody is ready to prepare the sprint for him. But then he shouldn’t go against the orders.”