Deceuninck-QuickStep manager Patrick Leferet has weighed in on the new 2020 race calendar.

In his weekly column for Het Nieuwsblad (opens in new tab), the veteran team manager outlined the major challenges that the peloton will face when the COVID-19 coronavirus blockade is eased and racing is expected to resume.

Chief among the concerns is the challenge of moving staff, riders, and equipment around the overcrowded schedule of overlapping Grand Tours, meaning that WorldTour teams will have to send three teams to three different races on the same day.

"The course has taken a step forward in the past week. Of course, the design is far from ideal," Lefebvre wrote in Het Nieuwsblad. [The overlap between the Giro d'Italia and the Walloon Classic, the Giro and the Vuelta a España, and Paris-Roubaix: 23 World Tour races in 100 days, with a 300 km race from Milan to San Remo on the second weekend. Normally, riders competing in San Remo already have 20 days of racing on their schedule. This is too much and probably too good to be true."

There are still only five World Tour races in 2020, the last being Paris-Nice in March. Some of the top-level races yet to be held, such as the Catalunya Volta, Ituria Basque, Tour de Romandie, and Tour de Suisse, will not take place before the end of the year.

However, some of the less prestigious World Tour races originally scheduled for later in the season, such as the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey Classic and the Tour of Guangxi, will remain on the new calendar. Their location, sandwiched between Grand Tours and monuments, is not ideal, writes Lefebvre.

"I have nothing bad to say about the Canadian races--they gave new life to cycling at the time, both in international standing and in organization. The Tour de Gironishi is more of an obligation for the riders than in previous years.

"At the same time, we know that now is not the time to be difficult. Whatever the circumstances, the peloton is happy that there are still races left in the season. We will do our best. Our logistics manager, Julie Velepto, will have a difficult puzzle to solve later on, but I am confident that we can manage all three programs in parallel."

Coordinating the overlap between the Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a España, Tour of the Broad West, and Cobbled Classics, as well as the Tour de France, Canadian races, Tirreno-Adriatico, and World Championships, is another logistical challenge. According to Lefebvre, suggested solutions include having riders finish the Giro early and converting campers into mini-team buses.

"Anyway, we have to be creative. On the last day of the Giro, we can transfer the staff to the Vuelta," Lefebvre wrote.

"Since we usually don't finish a Grand Tour with all the riders, we can reduce the number of staff. We have two team buses and one camper that we use as an ice bus and staff bar after the race. We plan to upgrade to a full-fledged bus in the future."

The team is sticking as closely as possible to its pre-pandemic rider plan, with Lemko Evenpoel heading to the Giro and ruling out the Ardennes Classics. Julien Alaphilippe will compete in the Tour de France, the Ardennes, and the Tour de Flanders. As for the sprinters, Sam Bennett will compete in the Tour, Fabio Jacobsen in the Giro, and Alvaro Hodeg in the Vuelta.

For a variety of reasons, Lefebvre writes that his return to racing will be piecemeal, but adds that simply returning to competition will dispel all concerns.

"I heard a lot of stories about the battles ahead: athletes not being able to train outside, athletes not being able to train at high altitude, Colombians having to set up a permanent high altitude camp.

"I heard that doping tests have also decreased by 95%. As my mother used to say, 'naughty weasels take the best eggs. There will be many concerns about the season restart, but being able to resume racing is far more important than all possible objections at this point."

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