Deceuninck-QuickStep sporty directors Tom Steels and Wilfried Peters reflected on the opening weekend in Belgium while riding the team bus in Coone on Sunday afternoon. The team finished second in Omloop Het Newsblad with Yves Lampère and won the Coone Brussel-Coone with Kasper Asgreen.

"It's as good as last year. We're happy. They are all ready to go for the Classic.

"We did well as a team and individually. If they are good, we have more tactical options than other teams. I'm happy everybody is doing well. We had some lapses of concentration during the race, but they had the ability to fix things. Switching from the sun on the wide roads during training camp to the wet, narrow roads of Flanders is a big change.

Pieters added, "The Krune race was different from previous years. The race in Krune was different from previous years. We didn't have the race in our hands like in previous years, but on this track it was important not to go crazy on the narrow roads because we still had some distance to cover. We just kept closing the gaps. We just had to hang on until the finish. I knew this race was hard to control, so I decided to wait until the local laps to see if I could go for a sprint with Fabio. It is known that there is no team leader. Bob, Stybar, Lampi, Fabio, Kasper, everyone has a chance. Of course, some players will be in support, but there are others who can set something up.

Steele, a former top sprinter, also talked about his finish in Kuhne and how difficult it was for team sprinter Fabio Jacobsen to make a good sprint in the last few kilometers with his teammate running just ahead of the peloton.

"If Kasper had caught up with me from behind, I would have had the option of going for Fabio Jacobsen in a group sprint. But it is difficult to sprint in these circumstances. You can't lead a sprint with the whole team," Steele said. We can't lead the sprint with the whole team," said Steele.

Pieters said he was worried about the last kilometer and talked about the "in sprint." I was worried that when we did the 'insprint' we would end up empty handed. If he waited too long to avoid being caught up behind, he was done. He finished fourth, but if Asgreen hadn't been in front of him, it would have been a different outcome," Peters said.

Steele, 48, is working closely with Sunday winner Asgreen. He ran a strong race yesterday, but he wasn't in the spotlight," Peters said.

In Saturday's Omloop, Asgreen dropped his chain at the start of the race. It took him and teammate Yves Lampert a long time to make it back to the main group behind the lead pack. Asgreen took a long time to rejoin the main group behind the lead pack along with teammate Yves Lampère.

In Kuhn on Sunday, Asgreen attacked the peloton just before the long breakaway group was about to catch up. Steeles was not surprised that Asgreen made that move 29km from the finish. He was smart in terms of race intelligence," Steele said. He trains his athletes to make the right decisions during the race. It was our decision to close the gap to the big breakaway with only Zdenek Stybar. At that point, a 20-second gap was too big," Steels said.

The 20-man group, which included many sprinters, was caught 40 kilometers from the finish. Asgreen attacked 10 kilometers later and joined the two survivors from the long breakaway group. It was his decision to attack there. He had scouted the course last week with Kasper. I knew that if I attacked there, the others would be in trouble, or at least make a big effort to come back," Stiels said.

"It was ideal that Kasper was in front. It was ideal to have Kasper in front of me. In the crosswind section, he dropped the most important one, sprinter Roy Yance. He struggled in the final headwind section, but recovered from that in the tailwind section. This is an advantage for riders who excel in time trials. They can run at a constant pace, but they can also keep going even if they die on the bike," Steele added.

The 25-year-old Danish rider joined the team on April 1, 2018, and has had a great run. His standout result was second place at last year's Tour de Flanders, but he was also part of the team that won the team time trial at the 2018 World Championships in Innsbruck. In the Tour de France, he supported Julien Alaphilippe and took an impressive second place on stage 18 from Pont du Gard to Gap. He also broke his bike in the Tour de France without breaking a bone. Patrick Lefebvre described him as "the engine of the team" during the Tour de France.

"He loves one-day races. Running classics as a foreigner ...... I think that's why he races. From the first day Asgreen joined the team, he made an amazing impression on me. That was at Scheldepri and it was clear that he had a big engine. He is an exceptional guy and can really run hard. He has a lot of laughs, but he is very serious about what he does."

"His biggest achievement for me was the team time trial in Innsbruck. He can use any terrain. He can handle short climbs and he's explosive. I remember his run in the Tour de France last year in the stage won by Matteo Trentin," Stiels said.