DEATH, TAXES & DQS WINNING
For the ninth season in a row, DeceuninckQuick Step won the most races in 2021. In the 10 seasons since 2012, they’ve won 574 races; Sky/Ineos is the only other team with more than 300, with 351 victories in the same period, and the next team is JumboVisma with 285. That’s less than half of the DQS total.
DQS win races in quantity and quality, and they are able to evolve and win with different riders:
18 different people won for the team this year. They started the year with Sam Bennett as their main sprinter and then seamlessly switched to Mark Cavendish and Fabio Jakobsen. Any sprinter can slot into their train and do well: Cavendish was a late call-up to the Tour de France squad and still won four stages. All the while, Remco Evenepoel has continued to be prodigious in different races, if not quite in the grand tours yet, and then there is a whole cast of other riders waiting to sweep up whatever comes to them. They are a factor in every race, whether Kasper Asgreen and Davide Ballerini in the classics, or João Almeida coming into his own later in the season. It simply won’t matter that Bennett and Almeida are leaving next season. It is a question of recruitment and really honing riders’ roles within the team, but also the atmosphere within the squad. It hasn’t all been success, however. Team owner Patrick Lefevere often overshadows the team’s great results, making comments about Sam Bennett and women’s cycling that often crossed the line from outspokenness to obnoxiousness. His comments tarnish an otherwise glittering year.
65 WINS FOR DQS IN 2021