QuickStep-AlphaVinyl team manager has opted to use a carrot-and-stick approach to motivating his team leaders, encouraging Remco Evenepoel to aim high in the Grand Tours, while taking a more critical approach with Julian Alaphilippe after his injury-hit 2022 season.
Lefevere spent the week in Calpe, Spain at the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl training camp, as his riders and staff began to work hard for the rapidly-approaching new season.
The Belgian team will be known as Soudal-QuickStep in 2023, with the sponsor changes lifting the team’s budget but also the expectations. Evenepoel won Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Vuelta a España and the world title but Lefevere’s squad struggled in the cobbled Classics and Alaphilippe missed the Tour de France after his high-speed Liège-Bastogne-Liège crash.
Lefevere is not known for his diplomacy and during a long interview with Belgian newspaper La Dernière Heure, he used some blunt words to motivate Alaphilippe and kinder words to encourage Evenepoel.
Alaphilippe won the world title in 2020 and 2021 but described 2022 as his hardest season of his career to Cyclingnews.
He started the year chasing form after missing a key training camp due to a nasty cold. Then he flipped over his bike in the crosswinds at Strade Bianche, which hindered his build up towards the Ardennes Classics. He was then caught-up in a terrible high-speed crash at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Two broken ribs, a broken scapula and a punctured lung forced him to miss the Tour de France and he also crashed out of the Vuelta a España.
Lefevere knows all of that. He is confident Alaphilippe can go well in the spring Classics but expects a lot from the French rider in 2023.
“I want him to recover. He owes me revenge. Julian has a champion's salary, but he must confirm that he still is a champion,” Lefevere said, firmly using his words as a motivational stick.
“That he is no longer world champion, I don't care, but in recent years he hasn't won much. Yes, he had a lot of bad luck, but it's always the same ones who are lucky and the same ones who have bad luck…”
Lefevere was more careful when speaking about Evenepoel. The Belgian has already confirmed he will target the Giro d’Italia in 2023, with a shot at the Tour delayed until 2024.
“We don't want to cut corners with Remco, and neither does he. The goal is that he can, one day, play the leading roles in the Tour de France, but we have always said that he would first participate in the Vuelta and the Giro. He sticks to that and that's fine the way it is,” Lefevere told La Dernière Heure in praise of his young team leader.
“You no longer have to limit yourself to winning the Tour de France to be one of the very best riders in the peloton, The time when guys only raced 35 days a year depending on the Tour is over. Remco is capable of defending itself on all terrains, with the possible exception of a mass sprint. For me, he will one day be able to play a major role in the Flemish classics.”
Lefevere admitted there was some truth to reports that Ineos Grenadiers tried to entice Evenepoel away. But in October, he told Cyclingnews that he locked the young Belgian into a five-year contract and built the next phase of his successful team around him.
"People sometimes think I'm stupid but if I do a five-year contract, everything is in there, for every scenario," Lefevere told Cyclingnews. "I signed Remco in February 2021 until 2026 and everything that has to be in the contract is in there. The only thing I have to do is pay it.
“If he had gone, I would have been the richest in the pack, but I'm very glad he didn't,” Lefevere now told La Dernière Heure, joking about what the rainbow jersey has added to the team.
“Lots of bonuses and bonuses,” he said with a laugh. “But this gives a lot of responsibility and confidence to the whole team.”
Evenepoel had to fight back from a nasty hip fracture in 2021 and struggled to show his true promise. He only got back to his best when he won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and was transformed by the time he started the Vuelta a España.
Lefevere does not forget that Evenepoel is still only 22, but like many has noticed his new maturity.
“He's going faster than I had imagined, he’s ahead of schedule,” Lefevere said. "He's a winner but probably won’t be nice when he has a bad day. But I have no doubt that he can handle that. Remco is calm, serene and down to earth. But he is a winner. Remco thinks of nothing but winning. It drives him on.
“Yes, but he remains humble but who says what he wants and feels. What is beautiful is that he always thanks his team a lot. It helps guys get down on their stomachs for him.”
