Deceuninck-quick Step
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Team Ineos Grenadier might win the Tour every year, but many rate Deceuninckquick Step as the best team in the world. Why? Because of their unique capacity to challenge for victory on every single stage in the race.
In the sprints the ‘Wolfpack’ has honed a fine lead-out train, all but guaranteeing whoever is at the end of it a hatful of stage wins – as Elia Viviani, Fernando Gaviria, Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish would testify.
This year they’ve signed Irishman Sam Bennett, who with five stage wins across the Vuelta and Giro in his palmarès, will be worth watching.
In the medium mountains former stage winner Zdeněk Stybar and young prodigy Kasper Asgreen are capable of winning from breakaways, while Bob Jungels will surely be a contender in the time trial.
The team’s one shortcoming was once the mountains, but Julian Alaphilippe’s extraordinary performance last year changed that. Already a world-beater in punchy uphill sprints, Alaphilippe stunned everyone in the Pyrenees and Alps, climbing like never before to spend 14 days in yellow and finish fifth overall. An adoring French public are longing for another dramatic GC bid, but he’s insistent that stage wins remain his primary objective. That could be a ruse to deflect pressure,
Bikes: Nationality: Manager:
Specialized
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Promise to win multiple stages in all terrain but without the departed climbing domestique Enric Mas the team could struggle to support him in the mountains anyway.
STAR: Julian Alaphilippe (Fra)
Already a winner of the king of the mountains, supercombativity award and four stages, Alaphilippe is France’s biggest cycling star for generations. Whether he’s impersonating President Macron on TV or emptying himself up a mountain, he has enough charisma for us to forgive that dodgy bumfluff goatee.
HITTER: Sam Bennett (Irl)
Frustrated by the lack of opportunities at former team Bora-hansgrohe, Bennett has landed the dream contract of riding for Deceuninck. This will only be his third Tour, and his first leading a World Tour team, but he’s odds-on to win at least one sprint stage.
DS: Info:
TOUR RIDERS
Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) 28 Kasper Asgreen (Den) 25 Sam Bennett (Irl) 29 Dries Devenyns (Bel) 36 Tim Declerq (Bel) 31 Bob Jungels (Lux) 27 Michael Mørkøv (Den) 35 Zdeněk Stybar (Cze) 34
CW Rating:
TOUR 2019
HIGHLIGHTS
Julian Alaphilippe spends 14 days in yellow
Alaphilippe wins two stages Elia Viviani wins a bunch sprint
Belgium Deceuninck makes windows and building products, Quick Step makes floors Patrick Lefevere Brian Holm www.deceuninck-quickstep.com @deceuninck_qst
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