Patrick Lefebvre revealed that the Sudar Quickstep team has held a "crisis meeting" following a disappointing campaign in the Cobbled Classics. He also admitted that the absence of Lemko Evenpoel has darkened his prospects in the Ardennes considerably.

For the third year in a row, he made little impact at the Tour de Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. The only consolation was the performance of Tim Mellier, who won the Scheldepri and Nokélé-Coa.

"Last Tuesday I called a meeting. A critical meeting," I wrote in my Het Nieuwsblad column.

"It is no secret that we were not in good shape in Paris-Roubaix. So the central question of our meeting was obvious. Where did the lack of performance come from? Quite a few different directions emerged. It certainly wasn't the fault of the Specialized bikes.

"We had discussed tubeless tires earlier, but I think Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe) made the top 10 with the exact same type from the same manufacturer.

CEO Soudal Quick-Step questioned whether the core of the classics should have raced more often instead of the high altitude training camp in February.

"The athletes who were active in the spring behind Mathieu van der Pol were the ones who ran smaller races like the Etoile de Besseges and the Coupe de France in February. We don't compete in those races," he said. We don't enter those races because a lot of them are away from training because of the selection."

In an interview with Le Parisien this week, Julien Alaphilippe revealed that he ran the Classics while breaking his knee in a crash at Strade Bianche. The Frenchman, who had faced harsh criticism from Lefebvre at the beginning of the season, did not publicly disclose the injury because he did not want to be seen as making excuses for his tepid race performance.

However, Lefebvre insisted that he has had success so far outside of the cobbled classics, with Evenpoel and newcomer Mikel Landa shining before his crash in Ituria Basque.

"I have 13 wins so far, with only UAE Team Emirates and Visma Lease-a-Bike having more," Lefebvre said. 'My sponsors have a global perspective and focus on foreign countries anyway.' Lemco in Portugal and Landa in Spain make them happy. It's the Flemish fans and the media that are obsessed with the classics."

"I've been working with them for years.

In the past few years, when talking about his team's struggles in the Classics, Lefebvre has always referred to the old truism that the spring balance is only tallied after Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

In 2022 and 2023, Evenpoel saved the team with victories in Liège, but broke his collarbone in Ituria-Basque and missed this year's Ardennes Classic. Ilan Van Wilder was called up to lead the Sudar-Quickstep line as Alaphilippe was set to make his Giro d'Italia debut.

"As 'De Brabantse Pijl' revealed, the team's effectiveness is also limited in the Ardennes," said Lefebvre, after Ilan Van Wilder was pulled out of the training block before the Tour de Romandie "a little against his will." He admitted to running the Flèche Wallonne.

"I completely understand his position, but training alone is not something I can afford right now.

Lefebvre, 69, was fined 20,000 Swiss francs last month after being found to have violated the UCI's code of ethics.