Of the four Belgian teams present on this 108e Tour de France with Lotto-Soudal, Alpecin-Fenix and Intermarché-Wanty Gobert, the Deceuninck-Quick Step team has the spellbinding power of champion factories. But who knows what she hides and what she hides? The proudly Flemish team is led by Patrick Lefevere, the last of cycling’s white sharks.
It is at the same time the symbol of hypermodernity, with its training courses at altitude – a ritual of the best financially endowed teams -, its doublet of coaches, a personal coach for Julian Alaphilippe … And the representation of a folklore which tends to fading away but that the team claims: flonflon of local fairs and races, barrels of beer drilled, fricadelles with coral sauce and spit-roasted meat. As proof: the victory of its sprinter Mark Cavendish, Tuesday, June 29 in Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine), was celebrated by the sports director Wilfried Peeters with beers.
The success of Julian Alaphilippe – at the end of the inaugural stage in Landerneau (Finstère) – and the double of Mark Cavendish – after his second victory, in Châteauroux (Indre), during the sixth stage – placed her in majesty on this Great Loop. In a globalized and sanitized cycling world, Flemish training is almost an exception: no banking group, no insurance company, no gas-oil group or telephone operator to sponsor it. Two family businesses sponsor it, one of which manufactures floors (Quick Step), and the other makes windows (Deceuninck). It’s a very well-equipped team.
With an 18 million budget announced, she would almost be a beggar. Patrick Lefevere, who was in another accounting life, is due to his reputation for avarice: Cavendish is paid by his sponsor and manufacturer of cycles. In fact, the British sprinter was hired without a dedicated grant… Patrick Lefevere is a bit like Harpagon on his tape. With him the victories fall in cascades through the slit and make a divine noise.
Unbeatable in mental arithmetic
An imperator profile, deep blue eyes, business acumen and interpersonal skills jealous for thirty-five years in the peloton. These are the characteristics of this 66-year-old man, who is at the same time the last of the godfathers of world cycling and the most remarkable of all horse-dealers, who would only miss the black smock of the cattle dealers. “The runners are like young wild horses that have just been freed from their stable, and here they are galloping in the meadow”, he said, among others, in an interview with the Belgian magazine Eddy, in 2020.
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