Coughing and cursing rang out as the Ghent-Wevelgem finishers made their way through the Männenstraat mix zone.

Shivering in the cold, most of the competitors understandably opted to take a rest on the team buses parked further down the street. But Yves Lampert and Tim Merlier, surrounded by microphones and cameras, put their day into words, perhaps out of a sense of obligation to those who had covered their team on their happy day.

The fourth cobbled classic of the season went to Jumbo Visma, with Wout Van Aert handing victory to teammate Christophe Laporte after a 55-km solo run. In contrast, Mellier finished more than 2 minutes behind in 14th place.

Compared to Friday's E3 Harelbeke, where Lampert finished 16th, Ghent-Wevelgem's results were paltry. Until recently, all roads to victory in this part of the world went through Patrick Lefebvre's team. These days, that mantle is firmly passed on to Jumbo Visma.

"I think they are exceptional at the moment. They're really super strong," Tom Steele, general director of sports, told Cycling News outside the Sourdal-Quick Step bus.

Stiels, a two-time Ghent-Wevelgem winner, knows the intricacies of the event better than anyone.

"You have to ride defensively and don't have the power to ride offensively," he admitted.

"The first Kemmel climb wasn't good. I had to chase there and if I did, I would lose a lot of power for later. After that, every time we climbed Kemmel, we would lose some riders."

Soudal-Quickstep's struggles here were clearly demonstrated on the first Kemmelberg climb. After pushing out sprinter Fabio Jacobsen, Kasper Asgreen worked hard to catch this group, but his efforts effectively prevented him from making any further impression on the race.

When Van Aert and Laporte made their game-changing move on the second climb of the Kemmelberg with 55 km to go, there was no sign of the Soudal-Quick Step riders and Merlier was the only rider in the 20-man chase group that formed on the run-in to Wevelgem.

Lefebvre had harsh words for the team's E3 Harelbeke run in his Het Nieuwsblad column on Saturday morning. Ghent-Wevelgem was far from a surprise and was entirely in line with the classic campaign so far.

As a year ago, illness somewhat mitigated Soudal-Quickstep's performance on the cobblestones, but the fundamental problem was probably one of recruitment. Teams have become increasingly focused on Lemko Evenpoel's overall class ambitions, and in the past few years, few players have been added to the Classics unit. For example, when players such as Niki Terpstra, Philippe Gilbert, and Bob Jungels left the team, similar replacements were not hired.

"When one or two guys get sick, you feel vulnerable," Steele said, but he preferred to focus on the struggles of the players at his disposal rather than lament the changes in the team's recruiting policies.

"At De Panne we had to put Yves on the team because (Casper) Pederson was sick. At this level, missing 5% is very tough, especially against the top riders.

"But it was good what Kasper did in the chase. Without him, the race would have already been over. I'm not going to say that we won't be competitive in the next 10 days just because we couldn't handle acceleration at critical moments.

The impending Tour of Flanders already seems out of reach for Sudar Quick-Step, even if Julien Alaphilippe hopes for a possible comeback after illness ruined his challenge in Harelbeke on Friday. As his two world titles attest, the Frenchman is strong on the big stage.

Alaphilippe will be back in the lineup on Wednesday at the Dwar door Hlaanderen, but on the evidence so far, Van Aert, Mathieu Van Der Pol (Alpecin Deceuninck), and Tadey Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates) are the most optimistic of Ronde's ability Even in the rankings, they are several steps ahead of him.

"On Wednesday, it will be clear what Julien's legs will do in the Ronde. But we can't take the race into our own hands," Stiels said. [Realistically, we have to realize that Pogachar, Van Earle, and Van der Pol are out of range. They are the top three and will probably fight it out in the ronde.

Behind Stiels, most of the players on the Sourdal-Quickstep bus were accustomed over the years to rule on the cobblestones. Even if Stiels echoed Lefebvre's old adage that "only after the cobbled classic campaign is over can the accounts be tallied," the transition to the present state of affairs must be heartbreaking. Hope is a precious currency in the midst of harsh realities.

"If you look at the top three (Van der Pol, Van Aert, and Pogachar - ed.), of course, we're a little out of range at the moment. 'But we will always be a classic team. But we will always be a team of classics.

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