Patrick Lefevere’s melancholic euthanasia

By admin Last updated Nov 20, 2024

How the old roadbin decided to dismantle the best team in the world

Once upon a time, there was the Wolfpack, a pack of voracious people who for almost 30 years imposed their law on one-day cycling races (classics), for better and for worse, after the occasion was born in the shape of a cube, even for the worse determining the order by design in the most iconic race on the international calendar. Over the years, the team has changed its name several times. After being born in the form of a cube, she always kept the prophetic and accelerated second name. At the controls was an old cyclist, as mediocre on the pedals as he was brilliant behind the desk.

This story in cycling seems like a fairy tale, which will one day be told to the grandchildren of cycling lovers and sums up the sad end of the glorious career of Patrick Lefevere, the man whose successes on the monuments of cycling are difficult to tell. Johan Museeuw, Paolo Bettini, and Tom Bonnen were the most fruitful interpreters of his way of interpreting racing, a happy evolution of a style introduced in the seventies by Peter Post’s “Raleigh”; Many were the champions, ready both to win alone and to support a teammate who is better off during the day. The three mentioned seasoned with the rainbow jersey, a multitude of great classics won and more recently it was Remco Evenepoel, who also did the same.

Remco, however, is different. In fact, to be precise, it is necessary to have more. The role of the alternate supreme leader is close to him because he is an absolute sovereign, an authentic king of the pedal sun. The adventurous victory in the Vuelta a España in 2022, with the millennial generation struggling over the return of Primoz Roglic and Enric Mas, deluded Lefevere that a compromise could be found between Evenepoel’s needs and the survival of the Wolfpack.

At this year’s Giro d’Italia, the unfortunate withdrawal due to COVID-19, which left many suspicions in the air, confirmed the unsuitability of Soudal-Quick Step to manage a major stage race. In this sense, the Melfi stage saw the paradoxical pseudo-rescue of Ineos-Grenadiers to save the pink jersey that Remco wanted to get rid of. Or perhaps, because at that time all suspicions would have been legitimate, the British team indicated to the young Belgian Flemish that his future lay there.

The news released in big headlines about the galactic merger between two giants (Jumbo-Visma and Soudal Quick Step) is reserved for the time being, because the story of independently managing the arrival of Remco, the good Patrick Lefevere found in Jumbo-Visma eager to leave the scene and that next year should be called AMAZON SOUDAL. Crowning the unsuccessful project of the late Pietro Mennea, Lefevere will close the doors and return not to Barletta, but to work with Moorslede.

The team with the yellow and black colors will maintain the line of successes, the Spaniard Mikel Landa is one of the hired, who will take on the role of Sepp Kuss, due to the American having been promoted to second leader replacing Primoz Roglic being on his way to Bora-Hansgrohe that last year did everything to hire João Almeida who opted for UAE-Tem Emirates when it is said that the conditions offered by the Germans were identical to those of the Middle Eastern team. The domino effect will continue in a disturbing way with other orphans of Lefevere, who will put themselves left and right, and leave about twenty runners out of the world circuit, some abandoned and others in arrears.

Patrick Lefevere’s melancholic euthanasia

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Patrick Lefevere’s melancholic euthanasia

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