The Grand Tours, or at least their overall classifications, have not historically been a big priority for Etixx-QuickStep. The team's focus comes instead at the Spring Classics, where they have enjoyed huge success, and where the Flemish media inquest is loud, long and soul-searching if they should come away empty-handed in April.
Etixx, conceived by Patrick Lefevere and constructed for a decade around their talisman, Tom Boonen, is held to be the living embodiment of the Flemish cycling 'mentality'. The team’s owner, Zdenek Bakala, is Czech, its origins Italian (in Mapei, from which Lefevere formed the Quick Step team in 2003) and its roster multinational, but it is quintessentially Belgian, or rather, Flemish.
The myth is that the Flemish are far more interested in the muck and nettles of one-day racing in April than in the stage races of high summer. Of course, the Ronde and Roubaix remain the highlight of the year, but Flemish cycling fans have a rich history of supporting their riders in the Grand Tours. That, of course, explains why Eddy Merckx is Eddy Merckx. He won everything, everywhere, but two races in particular have assumed iconic status in his homeland. In 1968 he became the first Belgian to win the Giro, and many argue that the stage win on Tre Cime di Lavaredo was his greatest ever. The following year he ran away with the Tour de France. Merckx also won his fair share of Spring Classics, but it was in the mountains of Italy and France, not on the cobbles of the north – that the legend was born.
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Of course Flemish cycling is different, because Flemish topography is different. Boonen has not only been a great rider but also the poster-boy for his generation. Thus, with only so much money available, Lefevere's investment in the Classics represents no more than a judicious cutting of the cloth. Cycling is a business and Boonen's greatness on the kasseien has delivered the sponsors more bang for their (overwhelmingly Belgian) buck.
Keeping up with a changing sport
However, the Boonen years are all but behind us now, though we await his last hurrah in Paris-Roubaix 2017. And as the sport continues to globalise it's unlikely we'll see his like again any time soon. The pre-WorldTour vacuum in which Flemish cycling existed is but a memory, and in order to thrive commercially the likes of Etixx-QuickStep need to be progressive. In essence they need be competitive throughout the year, and most of all they need to be visible at the Grand Tours. This explains why Mark Cavendish and Rigoberto Urán were enlisted in 2013 and 2014 respectively, and why Dan Martin's evolution from Ardennes specialist to GC rider makes sound commercial sense. Everyone agrees that April's a lovely month but it's no longer admissible to build a professional cycling team around it alone.
Lefevere's has always been one of the more moneyed teams in cycling, and one of the more prestigious. However, since its inception in 2003 it has delivered its sponsors a single Grand Tour podium, Urán's outstanding Giro of 2014. All of which explains why, at the Tour de France of 2015, Lefevere made it his business to prise Luxemburg's Bob Jungels away from Trek. A year on, his perspicacity has its reward, or at the least the beginnings of it. We always knew Jungels was a class act but his excellence in claiming the maglia bianca at the Giro suggests he might just be the man to lead his new team into the third millennium. Jungels was earmarked as a major talent from an early age. When the Leopard project was born in 2011, main shareholder Flavio Becca stated that one of its primary objectives was to develop young Luxembourgish riders. Specifically he was referring to Jungels, simply because he was so prodigious. He was already winning copiously all over Europe, destined seemingly for the very top.
All in for Italy
- Jungels: I'm no longer invisible
- Bob Jungels on his breakthrough Giro d'Italia - inCycle episode 15
- Transfer of the season? The mechanics of Bob Jungels' move to Etixx
- Giro d'Italia: Shades of Dumoulin about Jungels' defence of pink jersey
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