Classics specialist Florian Sénéchal will leave Soudal-Quickstep after five seasons with the Belgian team, opting to move across to Arkéa-Samsic in 2024.
The winner of minor one-day races like Le Samyn, Druivenkoers-Overijse along with podiums in the more prominent Gent-Wevelgem and E3 Saxo Classic, Sénéchal said Soudal-Quickstep's shifted focus to Grand Tours after the arrival of Remco Evenepoel was a major factor in the decision to switch teams.
"Soudal-Quickstep wasn't necessarily the team I loved any more, it was neglecting the Classics a bit," he said in an interview with L'Equipe. "It was a great school that toughened me up, but in the end, I was even tougher than them, the staff and the riders. Maybe that's what was going wrong."
The 30-year-old is one of a dozen riders leaving Soudal-Quickstep this year as a large part of the Classics team has been scattered amongst the teams in the peloton - Tim Declercq left for Lidl-Trek, Davide Ballerini for Astana - as the team seeks more support for Evenepoel's Tour de France debut next year.
Sénéchal has high ambitions as one of the leaders of Arkéa-Samsic's Classics team, saying, "I want to win. [Paris-]Roubaix would be the top of the top, it's the one that suits me best, but I'll already have to assert myself on the Omloop [Het Nieuwsblad]. I'll always have to be in the top 10. If I'm not, it'll be a failure."
Toward that end, he said he pushed manager Emmanuel Hubert to make some changes. "I called him directly to discuss what we could improve on all fronts: race tactics, medical follow-up, nutrition... which he implemented straight away."
The change of teams comes with some unknowns - Sénéchal said. "I didn't know anyone apart from Arnaud [Démare] and Kévin Ledanois a bit. So that's a lot of people to memorize," he said.
"I feel much more at ease in conversations, whereas I was always reserved in my old team. I think I even send too many messages on WhatsApp now," he joked
