For a team with the calibre and Classics history of Soudal-QuickStep, coming out of Opening Weekend with a solitary seventh place is a long way from the standards they've set over the past two decades.
However, that's all the Belgian squad have to their name after Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, with US neo-pro Luke Lamperti delivering the rare bright spot of the weekend with that top 10 placing at Kuurne in the peloton behind Wout van Aert's winning move.
After a day at Omloop, which saw Kasper Asgreen and Gianni Moscon infiltrate the Visma-led split before fading away before the Dane and Julian Alaphilippe later crashed out of contention, there was little to shout about with no QuickStep men making the decisive move at Kuurne.
Indeed, the race was a far cry from the norm for a team which has tasted victory nine times with seven different riders over the past 19 years. Even team boss Patrick Lefevere has the 1978 edition on his palmarès.
"You saw the race today. There's not too much question when you see these three riders in the front," veteran directeur sportif Wilfred Peeters told Cyclingnews after the finish.
"Lamperti was in fourth and we had a result in the first 10. For sure, we weren't going to close the gap. He's a first-year professional, so it was good.
"We rode to get him in a good position in the last km, and we hoped to catch the other chasers. We did it, and that's the only positive news."
21-year-old Lamperti, in only his 10th race day since stepping up from Trinity Racing, took fourth in the chase group behind the podium trio as another Visma rider, European champion Christophe Laporte, sped to fourth.
His near-namesake and teammate Yves Lampaert called the American "a good guy and great teammate" before reflecting on how the race had unfolded as Visma controlled, attacked, and won for the second time in as many days.
"Visma opened on Le Bourliquet just like last year," he told Het Nieuwsblad. "It was already an uphill sprint there, and few teams had an answer ready for them. I saw five men in yellow and then some riders swerving behind them.
"After that, everything came back together, and we were still riding hard in the peloton, but we didn't see the three leaders again."
The Belgian, a perennial contender on the cobbles, is among several QuickStep riders to have arrived at Opening Weekend off the back of an altitude camp, though he'd only come away with 21st and 27th places across the weekend.
He noted that the dominant Visma-Lease A Bike had seemingly taken much more from their time spent at altitude, while Peeters remained positive that upcoming racing blocks at Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico would help his charges ahead of next month's return to the cobbles.
"I hope to take another step forward towards top form, but Visma has also come from altitude," Lampaert said. "It apparently hits them differently than it does to us. Hopefully, there's still margin to improve. We're glad that we can compete and not get completely ripped off, but it's not easy."
Peeters noted that Asgreen had suffered after his crash in Omloop, while Alaphilippe fared better but still couldn't make the winning move.
"You saw the race with Julian – it was better than last year but not enough to follow Van Aert there," he said. "We had a good time at camp, and now we need more preparation with Paris-Nice and Tirreno coming up. Hopefully, it'll be another step towards the best condition."
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