More than half of the team’s riders will be in action at this year’s edition.
Julian Alaphilippe, Rémi Cavagna and Florian Sénéchal, (France), João Almeida (Portugal), Shane Archbold (New Zealand), Kasper Asgreen and Mikkel Honoré (Denmark), Tim Declercq, Remco Evenepoel and Yves Lampaert (Belgium), Davide Ballerini (Italy), Sam Bennett (Ireland), Mark Cavendish (United Kingdom), Alvaro Hodeg (Colombia), Josef Cerny and Zdenek Stybar (Czech Republic) – riders who between them have scored close to 50 wins for Deceuninck – Quick-Step since the start of the season – will all be present at the World Championships held between 19-26 September in cycling’s heartland, Flanders.
Of these, Asgreen, Cavagna, Cerny and Evenepoel will be in action also Sunday, on the opening day of the competition, when they’ll roll down the ramp for the 43.3km flat individual time trial between Knokke-Heist and Bruges, which Deceuninck – Quick-Step sports director Tom Steels previewed.
“It’s a parcours that suits our guys. Remco has the advantage of riding at home and he’s confident after the European Championships. Kasper, as the winner of Ronde van Vlaanderen, is used to the atmosphere of the races here in Belgium and will be very motivated, as will Rémi and Josef. The parcours is long but not technical, so they have a solid chance of fighting for a good result.”
Tom Steels talked also about the road race, which has more than 40 climbs crammed in its 268.3 kilometers: “The event is a really long one, and will be technical especially in Leuven, as those final 30 kilometers will be very hard. Julian will come to the start motivated and has a chance of defending his title on this up-and-down route which brings many rhythm changes and will be difficult to control. Riding on home turf means the pressure will be big on the Belgian riders, but Tim and Yves have the experience to guide the others. The way the race will unfold will also show what role Remco will have in function of the Belgian team.”
Since the team was created, back in 2003, four Deceuninck – Quick-Step riders have won the prestigious rainbow jersey in the road race on five occasions – 2005, 2006, 2007, 2014 and 2020 – making our squad the only one this century to have had so many different victors at the World Championships.
Photo credit: ©Alex Livesey / Getty Images
