Lefevere sees Visma | Lease a Bike and Soudal Quick-Step running into the same wall

Alongside his take on the racing, Lefevere credits Visma for how well they sell their story.

“What the Dutch do better than us for now is sell themselves. Richard Plugge is the best at that, and he has now announced a collaboration with an AI company,” Lefevere said, referring to Visma | Lease a Bike’s announcement of Mistral as a partner.

“That immediately took me back to the ‘Control Room’, the high tech minibus Visma | Lease a Bike was going to use to monitor race data in real time. I’ve heard very little about it since.”

He remains sceptical about anything involving AI in cycling.

“With AI innovations in racing, my bullshit alarm goes off. And when it does, I won’t hesitate to point it out in these columns.”

The remark is less about technology than about proof. Lefevere has seen enough grand concepts come and go to know that results on the road still outweigh presentations off it. And in his view, both Visma and Soudal Quick-Step are currently judged on the same metric: who is there when the decisive move happens?

“I heard on Thursday at the team managers’ get together that Van Baarle sees his move as a liberation. He now races for a team where riders have much more freedom,” Lefevere said.

He then widened the lens, arguing that Visma and Soudal Quick-Step are facing many of the same challenges.

“With all the articles I read this week and all the racing I watched on my new big screen, what strikes me most is how much Visma and Soudal Quick-Step are in the same boat,” he continued. “They missed Wout van Aert in the Omloop, we missed Jasper Stuyven. They have top talent Matthew Brennan, we have Paul Magnier.”

And he points to a shared issue off the bike as well: sponsorship.

“They’re looking for a new main sponsor and, basically, so are we. The Quick-Step contract runs until after 2027, but in the current construction climate that becomes very difficult.”

Lefevere’s week also included a lunch with Soudal Quick-Step owner Zdenek Bakala. What was meant to be a private conversation became broader when others joined

“Our lunch was supposed to be a tête à tête, but because there had already been a meeting in the morning, Jurgen Foré and board member Auret van Zyl joined in. It was a bit strange when Zdenek asked: ‘Patrick, what do you think of our transfers?’ 

I kept myself in check for Jurgen [CEO of the team]: ‘After Roubaix we will see if the team has really found its classic roots again.’ Does that mean I do not support the transfers? No. Laurenz Rex is a very good one. Jasper Stuyven and Dylan van Baarle in principle too, but they are not the youngest anymore.”