A punishing day out on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix concluded what has undeniably been a disappointing spring campaign for Soudal-QuickStep, a team with a long and distinguished history in this terrain.
Five-and-a-half hours of racing produced team-best 23rd and 24th placings for Tim Merlier and Yves Lampaert in the Roubaix velodrome on a day which saw the typical Hell of the North bad luck strike co-leaders Kasper Asgreen and Florian Sénéchal in the form of punctures and crashes.
Incidentally, Merlier – with his Nokere Koerse win – and Lampaert – third at the E3 Saxo Classic – scored the team's best results this cobbled season. However, QuickStep's worst Paris-Roubaix result since 2011 saw them end their time on the cobbles without a big win for the first time since the blank of 2013.
After the race, Lampaert summarised the laundry list of misfortune that had hit his teammates during the 256km ordeal.
"After two cobbled sectors we still had two men in the race," he told Het Nieuwsblad at the velodrome. "Davide Ballerini and Bert Van Lerberghe fell, Asgreen's bike broke, Sénéchal had a puncture, and Tim Declercq had a miserable time with his chain.
"I also punctured front and back at [sector 7] Cysoing à Bourghelles."
Lampaert and Merlier managed to avoid the bad luck that befell their teammates early on, but they weren't at the front when the favourites – led by Wout van Aert – took off on the sector before the Arenberg, Haveluy à Wallers.
"We ended up with a group of good riders, but nobody who could really make a difference," Lampaert concluded, having been stuck in the large chasing group that never saw the front of the race after the Arenberg.
Outside the team bus by the velodrome, Soudal-QuickStep boss Patrick Lefevere was on hand to give his summary of the day.
The veteran has seen his squad pick up 62 cobbled Classics victories over the past two decades and said "That's an understatement" when it was put to him that the 2023 campaign wasn't good enough.
"Merlier and Lampaert were a bit too far back in Wallers and then a rider from Bahrain fell and took the whole group with it," he said, referring to Fred Wright's Arenberg crash after noting the crashes and punctures his own team suffered. "That's when you know it's over and done with."
Lefevere noted that his team has experienced numerous successes so far this season, including Remco Evenepoel's UAE Tour victory and stage wins at the Volta a Catalunya. He would trade some of those wins for the Roubaix podium, he told Cyclingnews he was aiming for, though.
"We've won 20 races this year," Lefevere said, including, as is his habit, the Soudal-Quickstep Devo team's wins at .1 level - in the Tour du Rwanda this year, courtesy of Ethan Vernon - in his victory total. "But I agree – we would trade some of them to do better here. However, we don't have that choice.
"Today I'm certainly not cheering, but I hope the best is yet to come."
Once again, Belgian eyes will be turning towards the World Champion and the Ardennes – after all, QuickStep's Classics season was last year 'saved' by his solo victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. After a challenging month in Flanders and northern France, the Ardennes await.
