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The intrigue of a time trial captivated the cycling world this week, if you can believe it, while Soudal-Quick Step have been having some fun with numbers.
Meanwhile, The Suits look like they're about to start messing with our cycling TV coverage again ...
Happy 998th, 999th or maybe even 1,000th victory to Soudal-Quick Step 🤔
You may have noticed, thanks to the special cap and large t-shirt that Remco Evenepoel held on the Dauphiné podium, that the Belgian's stage four time trial win also gave Soudal-Quick Step their 1,000th victory as a team.
But did it?
The team, by its own count, has clearly been getting ready to celebrate this feat for a while. After Tim Merlier's victory on Sunday at the Brussels Cycling Classic, the squad at Monday's Antwerp Port Epic said they were raring to go for their attempt to hit number 1,000. Unfortunately, Merlier could only muster third and so it was left to Evenepoel to get them over the line.
However, multiple stats websites and a journalist have done some digging and reckon Quick-Step are still a few wins shy of a literal tonne.
ProCyclingStats has Quick-Step on 998 wins following Evenepoel's win, as does journalist Jonas Creteur and results database VeloStatistics. Apparently, the discrepancy stems from the Belgian team counting some slightly dodgy results.
The team's former rider Carlos Barredo took victories at Paris-Nice in 2008, San Sebastian in 2009, and the Vuelta in 2010. Results that were later expunged after the UCI handed him a two-year ban due to abnormalities in his biological passport, and he had four years of results scrubbed from the record.
Regardless, Evenepoel dedicated his TT win to former team manager Patrick Lefevere, with the 70-year-old later telling Sporza: “I don't get emotional easily, but I still had a lump in my throat.” Ah well, that's what it's all about ... probably.
Do say: whatever, that's a huge number of victories anyway.
Don't say: don't talk about Soudal-Quick Step's past!
Pogačar on (time) trial 👨⚖️
The worldwide overreaction to Tadej Pogačar shipping 28 seconds to Jonas Vingegaard in the Dauphiné stage four time trial was immediate. What does this mean in view of the upcoming Tour de France? Either nothing or everything. It's that simple.
More interestingly, following their crushing, half a minute defeat of the Slovenian with the mountains of the race still to come, Visma-Lease a Bike were certainly feeling themselves, and we don't blame them. Suffering through the Pog-fest of 2024 can't have felt good.
Pogačar checking out Matteo Jorgenson' Cervélo time trial bike with more than a bit of interest was of course instantly meme'd. Colnago, don't look now! The American, who finished the TT just ahead of the Slovenian in third, couldn't help but get involved, alerting Cervélo to the photo, with the bike brand saying they couldn't blame Pogačar's intrigue.
But then things got slightly worse for Pogačar ...
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