Quick-Step Alphavinir held its traditional Tour de Flanders preliminaries on Thursday morning. Koppenberg and Oude Kwaremont are the usual haunts, of course, but a gentle reminder of the obstacles before the big race is always welcome. Belgian Cycling's Holy Week is marked by such rituals. By the time they returned to their hotel for lunch, however, the lay of the land was quite different. Wout Van Aert, who had been dominant this spring, was in doubt about his participation in the Tour de Flanders due to poor health. Defending champion Caspar Asgreen admitted at a Quick-Step press conference on Thursday afternoon that the absence of the pre-race favorite would change the entire geography of the race. 'Obviously, he's probably the biggest favorite and now there's a good chance he won't start. He's probably the leader of the strongest team right now, and his absence will certainly change their tactics," Asgreen said. [Wout, who is probably the strongest rider at the moment and the last rider you can count on to make a difference, will be gone. So I think we will see a very aggressive Jumbo Visma. If he doesn't get to the start line, the race will be very different.

However, Patrick Lefebvre warned that the absence of Van Aert, who won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the E3 Saxo Bank Classic in dominant fashion, would not necessarily benefit his team, whose struggles in recent weeks have been well documented. Van Aart's good form means that his Jumbo Visma team will likely carry the burden of a successful race, while his eternal rivalry with Mathieu Van Der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) could give others a chance potential.

"Maybe some rivals will say they will be fine without him, but I don't think so," Lefebvre said. 'Mathieu and Wout are always block racing. They don't guess, they don't play games. And I think that in the last few years, when they were competing together, sometimes it was good for us."

Twelve months earlier, the Tour of Flanders had scheduled a rematch between Van Aert and Van Der Pol after the prize-match the previous October. This time, Asgreen was aided by the presence of Julien Alaphilippe, whose rainbow jersey attracted attention like a moth to a flame. Despite a modest showing on the cobblestones this year, Quick-Step Alphavinir resisted the temptation to use Alaphilippe to bolster its roster on Sunday, making Asgreen the team's sole leader. 'This year he will race as sole leader. Last year, with Julien as world champion, the leadership was a bit more shared. Last year, with Julien as world champion, the leadership was a little more shared. That makes it harder to make a difference. So in the end, as they say, you have to beat the best mano a mano. But when I competed in Flanders last year, I was one of the favorites to win because I had already experienced the Classic."

Asgreen is Quick-Step Alphavinil's most reliable Classics racer this year: back from COVID-19, Asgreen finished 3rd in Strade Bianche and was 10th in the E3 Saxo Bank Classics, despite a huge gap to Jumbo Visma in the finale. In the E3 Saxo Bank Classic, Asgreen finished in 10th place, although he was far behind Jumbo Visma in the finale. However, the team's other mainstays, led by Yves Lampert and Zdenek Stibal, have been restricted from racing in recent weeks due to illness.

Lefebvre acknowledged that the team cannot expect to race as aggressively as it did in 2017 and 2018, when it won with Philippe Gilbert and Niki Terpstra, but he refuted the notion that it would simply seek to follow Van der Pol. He favored Asgreen and Florian Seneschal for the finale in the Ronde. We have never concentrated on steering the others," Lefebvre said, "but it is clear that the events of the last few weeks have taken away our strength. 'We need to be intelligent enough to know when the race is in our hands and when it isn't. It is also true that I am not used to racing defensively. I'm used to racing aggressively." Asked if Van der Pol is a favorite to win the race, Lefebvre politely replied, "Well, if I'm not mistaken, he won the race last year. Well, if I'm not mistaken, he finished second last year and won two years ago. Mr. Asgreen also finished second a few years ago and won last year. The form is temporary, but the ambition seems to be permanent. I hope so," he said. I've seen it in the past. I saw it in the past, remember 2001. I didn't get a single result beforehand, but I finished 1-2-3 in Paris-Roubaix. So you never know."