In public, Patrick Lefevere usually leans on his training as a frugal bookkeeper whenever his teams struggle at this time of the year. The final balance sheet for the Classics, he always points out, is only ever tallied after Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and that old maxim rang true last season when Remco Evenepoel bailed everybody out at La Doyenne.
On the privacy of the Soudal-QuickStep bus, however, Lefevere surely has a rather more urgent message for his riders this year, who are floundering for the second cobbled Classics campaign in succession.
