Five or six years ago, Soudal-QuickStep team CEO Jurgen Foré announcing that ‘we want to win a major Classic’ would hardly have made any impact at all in the media. After all, for much of this century – and even well before that, should you dig into the team’s very oldest ancestors in Mapei and GB-MG – the Belgian squad was pretty much cycling’s one-day team par excellence.
The results speak for themselves: between 2006 and 2015, Patrick Lefevere’s blue-clad warriors conquered four editions of Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders. Even after Tom Boonen’s retirement in 2017, the Soudal-QuickStep cobbled Classics locomotive roared on, remaining largely unstoppable. The last wins for QuickStep in Flanders came thanks to Kasper Asgreen in 2021 – the same year they last conquered Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with Davide Ballerini.
The rise of Remco Evenepoel, however, meant the Soudal train suddenly jumped the tracks, shifting its focus much more to stage racing. Before that, there had been the occasional dip into Grand Tour GC bids with riders like Julian Alaphilippe, Rigoberto Urán and even briefly for Michal Kwiatkowski, but as Evenepoel succeeded, Soudal’s previous focus on the cobbled Classics took a back seat.
Nobody is forgetting Evenepoel’s ability to win Classics of the calibre of Liège-Bastogne-Liège (twice), as well as the Clásica San Sebastián aged 19 – a record youngest age for a WorldTour one-day race win that still stands – and Flèche Brabançonne as recently as last year. Still, as Foré underlined, Classics racing of the kind closest to the heart of a team with strong Flemish connections is now back on the menu, big time.
Looking back at QuickStep’s cobbled past isn’t just inspirational; it also has practical benefits. Soudal-QuickStep’s renewed Classics emphasis marks a firm statement about their self-perception and goals in the evolving peloton dynamic.
So, on Saturday, local interest in how Soudal-QuickStep fare in their old hunting ground at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad will be very high indeed.
Signings like Jasper Stuyven, a former Omloop winner, and Dylan van Baarle, the 2022 Paris-Roubaix champion, have considerably boosted the profile of the Classics squad. But when it comes to proving the team are back on winning terms with their most time-honoured targets, the young French sprinter Paul Magnier, fresh from winning two stages in the Volta ao Algarve, is one of the most intriguing new prospects for this year’s Classics.
Moving on from Remco
“Yeah, for sure, with the departure of Remco, it opens the door a bit more for the team to come back to the Classics mood, and then we can see that in the team with the recruitments of the new riders, too,” Magnier told Cyclingnews last week in Portugal.
“I think we are all super motivated to do some good results and we did some good winter training, too, so I think it’s going to be a really nice Classics period.”
The team’s history in the Classics is important, too. “The advice and knowledge of the directeurs sportifs who already raced all these races, the staff… I think everybody wants to give 100 per cent and do absolutely everything to put the riders in the best shape possible for these races. I strongly believe that as a Belgian team with such a long history of success in these Classics, What we have is the best way to get those results.”
Nobody is forgetting Evenepoel, but the team is now looking to the future.
‘The invisible knight’
The cobbled Classics were never completely forgotten, in any case, by Soudal-QuickStep. Yves Lampaert – third in Roubaix, a double winner of Dwars door Vlaanderen and a podium finisher in Omloop in 2020 – is one of the few remaining elements of the Soudal cobbled Classics team from the pre-Remco era. Magnier agrees with lead sports director Tom Steels that Lampaert remains integral to the team’s Classics side, before and after Evenepoel moving on.
“Yves is like our invisible knight,” Steels tells Cyclingnews. “He’s always at his best if he’s surrounded by strong riders and he has always done well at key moments over the years. He’s there doing a lot of work that doesn’t get seen on TV. He’s saved the team on crucial points and his experience has always been very important.
“But he still has the mindset really to go for the Classics, too and he also senses the support of guys coming from like Dylan and like Jasper, but also Bert [Van Lerberghe] and also Paul. He feels the new wave of riders coming to the cobbled Classics so I think for him it’s also going to be good.
“He had a difficult winter, but now he’s riding well again. So I think we will see the best of Yves again.”
Soudal certainly has a lot to be grateful for in how Lampaert has shored up their Classics performances. His consistent results in Flanders and Roubaix throughout the leaner years, including a podium finish in Roubaix in 2019 and second in Nieuwsblad in 2020, demonstrate his value.
Steels is not complaining, particularly with Magnier progressing and the other one-day contenders they’ve signed for 2026.
“Finding a rider that is made for the Classics for us is a bit like another team finding a Grand Tour winner. Once you have those riders in place, you can go back to your main roots.”
“The Classics for us, being Belgian-based, have always been important, and we’ve been a bit unlucky in them in the past few years. But now I think we’ve moved back a little bit more into that area and, to be honest, that’s really nice.”
He notes that the Classics are a different kind of racing, one that provides a unique and exciting challenge.
“Classics are very different and to be competitive in them over the years, in one of the most exciting sorts of races, always gives you a different special feeling.
“The atmosphere, the way of racing – these races are unique. Stage racing is a lot more controlled, either for a bunch sprint or for the GC, but in the Classics, there isn’t so much control, so that makes it exciting to do. But it also makes it difficult.”
Compared to a decade ago, the Classics game has changed, with the arrival of riders like Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Pogačar.
“For sure, Mathieu’s a bit too good at this. I would prefer it if he doesn’t start [Omloop], but if he does, we’ll just have to stay motivated and maybe think about some other tactics,” Magnier said.
Van der Poel’s participation has yet to be confirmed, but the team isn’t letting that distract them.
“He’s a super strong rider, and if he’s there, he’s gonna be a huge competitor. So we have to stay focused on the goals that we are setting as a team and not really think too much about the other riders.”
And this year’s race?
The starting point of Nieuwsblad this year has a revised route with the Valkenberg and the Elverenberg removed and the inclusion of two new climbs, the Tenbosse and Parikeberg before the usual fireworks on the Muur van Geraardsbergen and Bosberg ahead of the 11.8km flatter section to the line.
Steels said the changes should deliver “a bit more open race because the way to the Muur is heading back on the big road.”
“But the wind in that race is very crucial to making it harder or not. If it’s a headwind or a tailwind, it makes a big difference. With headwinds towards the main part of the final, then it’s very difficult to get away.”
For years, the sight of the QuickStep ‘blue train’ at the front of the main peloton in the biggest Classics was a familiar one. The addition of Stuyven and Van Baarle gives them an excellent series of cards to play on Saturday and further ahead.
“Yeah, it’s always a benefit in Classics if you have the numbers, if you have the riders who can really make the race hard. Plus, if you have those riders, it doesn’t matter who’s in the break for the team because you know they’re not just making up the numbers. They have a shot at winning, too. So that’s always a good, good way to race.
“Of course, you always have to compete against the one-man armies like Matthieu and Pogačar, who have very strong teams that can control the race a long way out. The weather’s always a big factor as well in making the race hard, too.
“But let’s see how they are, let’s see how we are, and then we’ll make the best of it, and I think Paul is a year older, he’s more experienced, a bit more confident too.”
Having so many options compared to 2025 is “for sure a good thing,” Magnier said, “and don’t forget Laurenz Rex, we don’t know if he will be back from his injury or not, but he’s also really motivated.”
“There’s gonna be some strong cards to play and maybe for me it’ll be a bit easier because I’m not going to have to jump on so many moves. Stuyven can always make his own move to disturb the other teams and I know he’ll be up there in the final, whether I’m there or not. So we’ll have stronger riders in the main group and, also in case of a sprint, a really, really strong lead-out.”
The Soudal Classics revival all starts at Omloop, but as Magnier said, it’s only the beginning. As their former team mastermind Patrick Lefevere was always fond of saying, the media and fans shouldn’t judge QuickStep’s Classics campaign until after Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Steels agrees that on this occasion Lefevere’s words carry even more weight than usual.
“Yeah, I think that’s always true. The Ardennes Classics are what they are; they’re also very important, and we do have a few riders who can handle them as well. Ilan [van Wilder] is a guy who can do really well in those kinds of races.
“So when we get to Liège, we’ll see how far we’ve got, and we’ll get a much better idea of how much further we can go. Now, and in the future, too.”
