Team Quick Step Challenges on Tour
Team Quick Step, with Belgian Patrick Lefevere as general manager, have fielded a versatile roster for this year’s Tour de France. With sprinters, young riders, and general classification riders among its ranks, the team will contend for several jerseys in the current Tour.
The team can count 5 stage wins in the 2008 Vuelta a Espana and the youth classification of 2009’s Giro d’Italia, awarded to its 22 year-old rider Kevin Seeldraeyers, among its major successes on the UCI ProTour.
Unfortunately for Team Quick Step, Belgian sprinter Tom Boonen was forced to pull out of this year’s Tour due to long-standing injury problems. Boonen, who claimed the Tour’s green jersey in 2007, has won the points classification in the Tour of Qatar no less than four times since 2004.
The Belgian sprint specialist will be sorely missed by his team, but Quick Step have a range of other riders eager to perform in the Tour, with Italian rider Francesco Reda stepping up to replace Boonen in the race. It will be the Italian’s first Tour.
Furthermore, four other riders will be making their Tour debuts for Quick Step this year. Aside from Seeldraeyers, Belgian trio Dries Devenyns, Kevin De Weert and Maarten Wynants will be riding their first Tour.
These three, all general riders, will mostly be supporting their Quick Step teammates in their bids for stage and classification wins.
31 year-old Sylvain Chavanel, riding with Quick Step since 2009, will be looking to contend for the general classification, a victory that will largely be contingent on the support of his younger teammates.
Chavanel collected his first stage win in the tumultuous second stage of this year’s Tour, and has become the national time trial champion of France three times, in 2005, 2006 and 2008.
In April this year, Chavanel suffered a nearly fatal crash in the Liège - Bastogne – Liège, suffering a fracture to the base of his skull that kept him out of the sport for nearly 8 weeks. By late June, Chavanel was able to announce that he would be racing in this year’s Tour.
"I continue to climb the steps and I think I'm close to my top form," he explained to French publication Sud-Ouest in June.
"This is the first time I will be coming to the Tour so fresh. In May I had zero competition. I did the Tour [de Suisse in June] and French Championships [last week]. I think my top form is coming soon," he explained, and judging by his win in Stage on Monday, he may be right.
The Frenchman finished nearly 3 minutes ahead of runner-up Fabian Cancellara, proving beyond a doubt that the rest he enjoyed after his crash had prepared him well for the Tour.
More stage wins are likely to come for the Belgian team. Frenchman Jérôme Pineau, racing with Quick Step since 2009, won Stage 5 of this year’s Giro, and came close to a second win during Stage 12.
Landing its first yellow jersey since Boonen wore it in the early stages of the Tour in 2006, and its first stage win since Belgian sprinter Gert Steegman won the final stage of 2008’s Tour, Team Quick Step has made a promising start to the Tour thus far.
With experienced overall contenders and hungry talents to support them through the toughest stages of this year’s route, the team should be able to collect more stage wins over the coming weeks, even without cherished sprinter Boonen.
And even if Team Quick Step collects no classification wins this year, its roster is versatile and young enough to be able to make an impact over the next several seasons.
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