Quick.Step team manager Patrick Lefevere has shown that he has the best one day riders in the world at his command, after Paolo Bettini's late season victory in the Giro di Lombardia. "Whoever wins five of the former World Cup races in one year, as well as having a World Champion [two, counting the T-Mobile bound Michael Rogers], and has been in the firing line from January to October, can speak of a huge year," said Lefevere to Het Nieuwsblad.
The other main Belgian team, Davitamon-Lotto, finished fourth in the ProTour team rankings (compared with Quick.Step's 12th) and won Gent-Wevelgem, among many other races. Although Davitamon-Lotto's team manager Marc Sergeant said that his team ranking was "better than we could have ever hoped for", Lefevere pointed out, "Go tomorrow to the Grote Markt in Brussels and ask who was fourth in this year's ProTour team ranking. There'll be no-one who knows. No, I can calmly say that we have the best team in the World. And it wasn't just Boonen and Bettini. Also Nuyens, Pozzato, Mercado..."
