Kasper Asgreen was the final Soudal-QuickStep rider to win Tour of Flanders, incomes his gorgeous 2021 victory in a two-up dash in opposition to then-defending champion Mathieu van der Poel.
It was a 12 months that Soudal-QuickStep reigned supreme within the Spring Classics, successful 5 of the one-day spring races. Asgreen accounted for a pair of the victories, having notched a solo win at E3 Saxo Basic forward of his Monument triumph. Julian Alaphilippe gained La Flèche Wallonne for a 3rd time, with podiums at Strade Bianche and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
After the 2021 marketing campaign, the regular stream of Classics conquests subsided. Two riders – Remco Evenepoel successful back-to-back at Liège-Bastogne-Liège the previous two years and Tim Merlier successful Nokere Koerse twice – earned the large outcomes. At Flanders, Asgreen was the highest QuickStep finisher in 2022 in twenty third place and rebounded for a high 10 final 12 months.
“Going into De Ronde, it’s fairly clear for everybody that we’re in a unique state of affairs than prior to now. We might have most well-liked to be within the place we had been a few years in the past, however we aren’t and that’s a reality,” Asgreen mentioned Friday prematurely of his sixth look on the Ronde.
“Being annoyed by the very fact we aren’t the identical staff anymore or sitting in a nook crying gained’t assist us.
“We now have to work exhausting to return to the extent we had prior to now, but it surely’s apparent that for Sunday afternoon we’ll must adapt and convey one thing totally different. As we aren’t the staff that has to manage the race anymore and dictate the way it unfolds, we’ll attempt to be ready the place we will do one thing attention-grabbing with a stable end in thoughts.”
Final 12 months’s runner-up at Flanders Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) returns as a transparent favorite, now that a number of contenders are out on account of accidents sustained in Dwars door Vlaanderen, together with Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek).
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“Following Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen issues have modified and it’s very seemingly we’ll see a unique race than we had been used to, with a very new dynamic,” Asgreen mentioned.
“We’ll must anticipate, however that’s not a secret. Flanders is a race with many essential factors and we have to discover the one which fits us and works to our benefit.”
Asgreen strains up with Alaphilippe, Merlier, Yves Lampaert, Gianni Moscon, Casper Pedersen and Bert van Lerberghe. He mentioned the Oude Kwaremont was a key part of the course the place quite a few riders may benefit from the state of affairs offered. He additionally mentioned that because the longest climb, it was the very best place to assault.
“Many are already struggling there and close to the highest you may make the distinction when you’ve got the facility, even when it’s not that steep.”
Staff supervisor Patrick Lefevere advised media on Friday he was optimistic to reverse a “damaging spiral” of the staff within the Classics.
“Issues aren’t going effectively in the intervening time, however the boys are doing their greatest. We’re in a damaging spiral,” he advised HLN. “I at all times look ahead to the Tour of Flanders. It is a residence sport. We hold religion within the boys and also you by no means know what can occur.”
Asgreen confirmed that the staff was motivated for outcomes, and was not prepared to surrender with no battle.
“We come to the beginning with staff and we’ve got to race as one and consider in ourselves, as a result of as everybody is aware of, the Wolfpack by no means provides up. It’s a Monument, and one of many hardest races of the season for that matter, and something can occur.”
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