You may have noticed, thanks to the special cap and large t-shirt that Remco Evenepoel held on the Dauphiné podium, that the Belgian’s stage four time trial win also gave Soudal-Quick Step their 1,000th victory as a team.
The team, by its own count, has clearly been getting ready to celebrate this feat for a while. After Tim Merlier’s victory on Sunday at the Brussels Cycling Classic, the squad at Monday’s Antwerp Port Epic said they were raring to go for their attempt to hit number 1,000. Unfortunately, Merlier could only muster third and so it was left to Evenepoel to get them over the line.
However, multiple stats websites and a journalist have done some digging and reckon Quick-Step are still a few wins shy of a literal tonne.
The team’s former rider Carlos Barredo took victories at Paris-Nice in 2008, San Sebastian in 2009, and the Vuelta in 2010. Results that were later expunged after the UCI handed him a two-year ban due to abnormalities in his biological passport, and he had four years of results scrubbed from the record.
Regardless, Evenepoel dedicated his TT win to former team manager Patrick Lefevere, with the 70-year-old later telling Sporza: “I don’t get emotional easily, but I still had a lump in my throat.” Ah well, that’s what it’s all about … probably.
The worldwide overreaction to Tadej Pogačar shipping 28 seconds to Jonas Vingegaard in the Dauphiné stage four time trial was immediate. What does this mean in view of the upcoming Tour de France? Either nothing or everything. It’s that simple.
More interestingly, following their crushing, half a minute defeat of the Slovenian with the mountains of the race still to come, Visma-Lease a Bike were certainly feeling themselves, and we don’t blame them. Suffering through the Pog-fest of 2024 can’t have felt good.
Pogačar checking out Matteo Jorgenson’ Cervélo time trial bike with more than a bit of interest was of course instantly meme’d. Colnago, don’t look now! The American, who finished the TT just ahead of the Slovenian in third, couldn’t help but get involved, alerting Cervélo to the photo, with the bike brand saying they couldn’t blame Pogačar’s intrigue.
