Soudal-QuickStep were one of the big winners of the Giro d'Italia as the Belgian team walked away with a trio of stage wins and the maglia ciclamino with young sprinter Paul Magnier.
The 22-year-old raced what turned out to be his first full Grand Tour in May, having ridden two weeks of his debut a year earlier. He took out stage wins in Burgas, Sofia, and Pieve di Soligo to beat Jonathan Milan to the points classification win, as he scored the biggest wins of his career to date.
Soudal-QuickStep CEO Jurgen Foré has said that the team never doubted Magnier after illness earlier in the spring put paid to his Classics goals.
"That was the first time we really tackled a Grand Tour in that setup, with a lead-out for him. We never doubted him, but we had to keep him calm," he told WielerFlits.
"Everyone knows he has the qualities. But by now, you can also see from his positioning that he really comes at the right moments, senses when he ideally needs to attack, and then just sprints to the finish line. I loved watching him and the team in action.
"Winning against the best sprinters in the world – except for his teammate Tim Merlier, of course – means a lot. The world elite was present at this Giro. Of the four pure mass sprints that took place, he won three.
"That does a lot for a rider mentally; the realisation that you can win at the very highest level. He is the second-youngest winner of the [Giro] points jersey ever. That proves how much potential he has."
The team had planned this year to take Magnier to the Giro and Merlier, at 33, 11 years the Frenchman's elder, to the Tour de France.
Merlier, of course, has much more experience, with seven Grand Tour stage wins on his palmarès. He has struggled with a knee injury to start the year, but made his debut in March and has since racked up five wins, including Scheldeprijs and three stages of the Tour de Hongrie.
"Tim has had a nasty injury that dragged on for a long time. The danger then is that under pressure, you want to push too hard and too fast to make a comeback," Foré said.
"I have to congratulate our medical and performance staff on how they handled that. We allowed Tim to improve through targeted race stimuli, training blocks, and an altitude training camp. Nothing was rushed.
"It certainly helped that we had someone like Paul who was successful in the Giro, allowing Tim to build up in a steady manner. Tim has already won a lot this year in the races he started. But we are now working towards the Tour with a lot of confidence, and I am confident that he will be at his very best level there."
Considering Magnier's rapid rise, they could face a future dilemma over which sprinter to throw their weight behind at the biggest race of the year. It's a "luxury problem we will have to solve later," Foré said.
"At the start of the season, we always look at the programs and goals to map out a clear trajectory for everyone. This year we chose to take Paul to the Giro and Tim to the Tour. We'll see what next year brings then. In terms of pressure and hectic pace, the Tour is on a completely different level.
"At the end of the cycling season, we look at the routes of the Grand Tours for next year and determine how the puzzle fits together.
"Ultimately, that is a luxury problem that we will have to solve later. The goal is to get Paul to the Tour at the right moment, but Tim remains super important to us as well. Tim is still hugely ambitious; he still dreams of winning stages in all three Grand Tours in his career.
"To achieve that, he will still have to go to the Vuelta. Because the Vuelta course this year is less tailored to sprinters, the focus is different now. But next year, things can be done differently again."
Merlier and his lead-out train are set to be accompanied at the Tour de France by a host of climbers and stage hunters in the Soudal-QuickStep lineup. The team's selection remains to be seen, but riders including GC leader Mikel Landa, 2025 stage winner Valentin Paret-Peintre, and Ilan Van Wilder, who is set to race the upcoming Tour de Suisse, look likely to make the team.
"Mikel Landa has had all the bad luck in the world since last year's Giro d'Italia. He had just become pain-free again, but then he was hit by a car during Itzulia Basque Country," Foré said.
"He has had to recover, but is now training at altitude with the team again. Then there is Valentin Paret-Peintre, who showed in Catalunya that he has taken a significant step forward; he is now specifically preparing for the Tour de France.
"Ilan Van Wilder is fortunately feeling well again after a persistent infection that, like many infections this season, lingered for a very long time. He has now recovered and is working purposefully towards the Tour.
"We also have irons in the fire heading into the Vuelta, aiming to compete for stage victories in the mountains. Junior Lecerf, Steff Cras, and perhaps also Filippo Zana – those are the kinds of riders that will get their chances there."
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