Deceuninck-QuickStep team boss Patrick Lefevere has said while he hoped for more success from his riders at their national championship races this weekend, having too many champions in a team sometimes causes problems.
He explained it can have a negative impact for sponsors as their name is less visible on the team jersey.
So far four of his riders have won national titles in recent days, all in the TT discipline; Kasper Asgreen in Denmark, João Almeida in Portugal, Yves Lampaert in Belgium and Josef Černý in Czech Republic.
“I expect to see some more on the road on Sunday,” Lefevere said in his
weekly Het Nieuwsblad column of the
road title races being held across Europe tomorrow.
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“(But) preferably not too much, because then the sponsors will complain about visibility. At Mapei, we once had seven in one season. They all ride with the flag of their country on the jersey and not with the name of the sponsor.”
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Lefevere also wondered how Julian Alaphilippe would do in
the French championships tomorrow as he became a father for the first time last
week and has spent a lot of time with his partner and baby son at the maternity
hospital.
Team boss Lefevere is now aged 66 years and has been in team management since 1980. He founded his current team in 2002 and said many years ago when riders became fathers it did not have as much impact on them.
“Maybe it's not even a bad evolution, but fatherhood isn't what it used to be
for riders,” he said, citing the era of Johan Museeuw.
“With Museeuw and co their wife was expecting. Now couples are pregnant
together and ‘they’ have to give birth. If Julian isn't
110 percent (at the Tour de France), he just won't get involved against Mathieu
van der Poel.”
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