With no newspapers on sale in Belgium on Easter Monday, editors had an additional 24 hours to compose their headlines to mark Niki Terpstra's Tour of Flanders victory, though the extra time was hardly necessary: once again this Spring, the story of a major Classic has been written in blue ink.
Unsurprisingly, Quick-Step Floors' collective dominance was the prevailing theme in the Flemish press on Tuesday morning. "Mighty Terpstra, almighty Quick-Step," ran the headline in Het Nieuwsblad, which singled out Patrick Lefevere's managerial skills for particular praise. Sunday's Ronde victory was Lefevere's 10th as a team manager, a sequence stretching back to Johan Museeuw's maiden triumph back in 1993.
"Even if the team of Lefevere took a collective holiday on Sunday in Roubaix, the title of the 'team of the spring' is already theirs," read Het Nieuwsblad's lead article. "Lefevere is many things: a CEO, a bon vivant, a big talker, and also an excellent people manager."
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It was a topic also touched upon by Het Laatste Nieuws, who highlighted how Philippe Gilbert was deemed incompatible with Greg Van Avermaet at BMC over the years but has since proven himself to be selflessly dedicated to the cause at a Quick-Step team that operated without one fixed leader, but rather a gang of four in the shape of Gilbert, Terpstra, Yves Lampaert and Zdenek Stybar.
"There is a mentality on Lefevere's team that says you can win Classics without a leader, that riders with egos as big as those of Philippe Gilbert, Zdenek Stybar or Niki Terpstra have to be prepared to put their own ambitions aside for the team," Het Laatste Nieuws wrote.
"At BMC, the world was not big enough for Van Avermaet and Gilbert together, but now you can ask the same Philippe Gilbert to step aside in the Tour of Flanders, and without the explicit promise that next Sunday everyone will ride for him in Roubaix."
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Van Aert
Boonen's view
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/mighty-terpstra-almighty-quick-step-belgium-reacts-to-the-tour-of-flanders
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