You have to scroll 32 places on the Ghent-Wevelgem results sheet to find the name of Quick-Step Alphavinir rider Kasper Asgreen of Dane.

He stayed in the top 10 at Friday's E3 Saxo Bank Classic, failed to lead out at the midweek Bourges des Pannes, and completely fell off at last month's Omloop Het Niusbrod.

But there are a number of mitigating factors that have kept the Belgian team from being a shadow of its usual dominant strength this spring.

Already plagued by illness and injury, they were forced to conclude after a bruising battle in Ghent-Wevelgem that the classical gods were for them.

Florian Senechal crashed and abandoned the race, and Bert van Lerberghe also hit the deck.

Pure sprinter Fabio Jacobsen crashed several times in Kemmelberg, Seneschal left the race, Stybar was out of shape again, and Yves Lampert had just returned from illness, so only Asgreen was in command.

"Unfortunately, it was a bit lonely up there," the Tour de Flanders champion told Cycling News in Wevelgem.

"It's obviously a new situation for me. Up until now we were a team with a lot of people. Now it's not."

Asgreen's rapid rise up the Quick Step Classic food chain was initially due to the depth of riders surrounding him; in 2019, he was on the fringes of the team, but the presence of fancier colleagues opened doors and he suddenly finished second in Flanders.

The following year he won the Coure Brussel-Coulomb, and last spring he beat Mathieu van der Pol (Alpecin Phoenix) in the 2-up sprint to win Flanders, effectively moving to the top of the team pecking order.

But without strong rivals like Lampert, Stybar, and Seneschal this spring, needless to say, world champion Julien Alaphilippe has disappeared from the cobbles.

"When the group of four went, I was left alone. Which group would I follow and which group would I let go?

"I decided to let one of them go because there was a team in the group that had more people than us, like FDJ. They ended up not containing them. That's the game you have to play when you go up alone."

As if to confirm that he was under some sort of spell, Asgreen's chain came off as the main group was sprinting for fifth place.

"He almost crashed. Otherwise, he would have been in the top three in the sprint," claimed sport director Tom Steels.

Steele's expression at Wevelgem was one of resignation, more like a shrug than disappointment or frustration.

"What am I supposed to do? The ball just won't roll."

For the Seneschal in particular, bad luck seemed to be lurking around every corner. He was behind Giacomo Nizzolo in Milan-San Remo, but crashed on the descent of Poggio, and in E3 he suffered a puncture at a crucial moment.

"It's certainly not easy. I've been training for this race all winter and now this has happened three races in a row. We just have to keep moving forward."

If there was a silver lining on Sunday, it was Lampert's performance: while 39th place would not normally have been noteworthy, his inclusion in the second group on the three Kemmelberg climbs was more than expected given his recent health problems.

"I was very surprised by Yves. He was already there and made it into the second group."

"You can't control bad luck; you have to move on again after 15 minutes of disappointment. That's cycling. That's sport. They can't stand still. Unless they have a really bad run, but they are coming back."

Asgreen echoed his coach's thoughts, satisfied with his own physical condition and health, and optimistically looked ahead to next Sunday's Tour de Flanders. No bad luck for Seneschal, and Lemper came back near full strength.

"Honestly, we're not that far off," Asgreen said. "We were unlucky today. We didn't have a bad race as a team on Friday. We didn't have a bad race as a team on Friday. We missed the split in Teyenberg, but they did a great job coming back and kept fighting. If we keep doing that, one day we will surpass them."