For most of the team's existence, Soudal-QuickStep have developed the useful habit of winning early and often at the Tour de France. Even last year's race, which ultimately proved a relatively modest one for Patrick Lefevere's squad by their traditional standards, began with back-to-back stage wins in Denmark.
The 2023 edition, by contrast, has yielded nothing of note thus far for Soudal-QuickStep. On the first rest day, they suffered the indignity of sitting at the very bottom of the prize money table, amassing just €3,600 in primes across the first nine stages compared to leader Alpecin-Deceuninck's €48,200.
As the Tour passes its midpoint, Soudal-QuickStep have yet to pick up a stage victory and with sprinter Fabio Jakobsen still suffering the effects of his heavy crash on stage 4, they face the increasing risk of drawing a blank at the race for the first time since 2012.
Although Remco Evenepoel's extravagant gifts have drawn the eye elsewhere this season, there is no overlooking the fact that Soudal-QuickStep's traditional hunting grounds of the cobbled Classics and the Tour have failed to provide anything like their yield of old.
"They're still smiling, they're still eating, they're still drinking. They're still motivated every day even if they suffer," directeur sportif Tom Steels told Cyclingnews in Clermont-Ferrand on Wednesday. "But when you're at the Tour, some years it goes easier than other years. We'll still go full gas to Paris."
QuickStep's sprint unit has traditionally been the bedrock of the team's Tour success. When Sam Bennett joined the team in 2020, for instance, he admitted that he was particularly motivated by the fear of becoming the first QuickStep sprinter to fail to win a stage at the Tour.
Jakobsen inherited the weighty mantle at last year's race, and he lived up to his billing by winning the opening road stage in Nybørg. This time out, however, the European champion has been hampered by the lingering effects of his heavy crash in Nogaro on stage 4 and has been only a flickering presence in bunch finishes since, his flame already guttering before the sprint ignites.
"He just has to find his explosivity back and after a crash that's usually the last thing that comes back, really, those small accelerations you need. The other day in Bordeaux it wasn't back. I hope today it is back," Steels said with guarded optimism before stage 11 got underway.
Jakobsen had coped relatively well with the demands of staying inside the time limit on Tuesday's tough run through the Massif Central, but Steels, himself a nine-time stage winner at the Tour, acknowledged that the proof of Jakobsen's recovery would be in the sprinting.
"There's no real way of knowing until he sprints," Steels said. "You can feel it during the race a little bit if you some small efforts, but it's only in the final 500m that you'll know if you have the final big explosion."
In Moulins four hours later, the bunch finish delivered a doleful verdict, even if Jakobsen's lead-out man Michael Mørkøv insisted the fault for his distant 16th place lay in the team rather than their star sprinter. After Jakobsen had climbed silently aboard the team bus after wheeling through the finish area, Mørkøv put words on another disappointing outing for QuickStep.
"With a better-organized team, Fabio could have participated in the sprint. I think today he tried really hard, and he looked well. I think he can be able to contest again," said Mørkøv, who politely dismissed the idea that Jasper Philipsen's dominance of the sprints was proving a frustration.
"No, it starts to get frustrating that we aren't contesting for the sprint. Obviously, Jasper has now won four out of four, which is nice for him, but I'm more concerned about ourselves."
Alaphilippe
QuickStep's run of Tour success over the years hasn't been built on bunch sprints alone, of course. For much of his career, Julian Alaphilippe has left a hefty impression in July, clocking up six stage wins and wearing the yellow jersey in three successive Tours, most notably in 2019, when he carried the tunic for two weeks en route to fifth overall.
Alaphilippe has never made a tilt at the general classification since, mind, and the punch that carried him to opening weekend wins in 2020 and 2021 has been markedly absent on his return to the race this year after injury ruled him out twelve months ago.
There has been plenty of perspiration from the two-time world champion, who has been a presence in several breakaways, but precious little inspiration. Tuesday's tough run to Issoire looked tailored to his characteristics as a puncheur, but instead, Alaphilippe was caught on the wrong side when a high-calibre break split up, reaching the finish in 10th.
"I don't think he's missing much, but at this level, 2-3% is always enough to come just a little short. It's not much, but the level at the Tour is just so good, so it is what it is," Steels said of Alaphilippe, even if he struck an upbeat note about the remainder of his summer if not necessarily the rest of his Tour.
"He's in the fight and he's going to get back to his best. Whether that's going to be in this Tour, I don't know. It could be at San Sebastian or the Worlds, but he will be back on his best. He's come back from injuries and when you do that, you come back in waves. It goes back and forth a bit before the wave comes back to its highest point. But he's not far. He's really not far."
At the finish in Moulins, Alaphilippe was less keen to run the rule over his and QuickStep's Tour at this early juncture. "I'll take stock when we make it in Paris," Alaphilippe said. "I'll be happy if I give the maximum and I don't have any regrets."
Steels, too, was reluctant to criticise his charges with almost half of the race still to run, even if he knows the drought has shown few signs of dissipating so far. "As long as they are fighting, I don't have problems with what they do," Steels said. "They do their best and it is what it is."
