With Remco Evenepoel on his way out at Soudal Quick-Step, and the likes of Jasper Stuyven and Dylan van Baarle coming in, the prevailing narrative in recent weeks has been that the Belgian team is parking its general classification ambitions and pivoting back towards being a Classics powerhouse.
The reality, however, is somewhat different. Jurgen Foré’s team still have race-winning climbers and race-winning GC men among their squad: Mikel Landa (seven GrandTour top-fives), Max Schachmann (two Paris-Nice titles), Ilan van Wilder (2023 Deutschland Tour winner), Valentin Paret-Peintre (winner on Mont Ventoux), and the new star to emerge: Junior Lecerf.
In early August, 22-year-old Lecerf took the biggest victory of his young career, winning the queen stage and the GC at the Czech Tour. It may be a second or even third-tier race, but the man he beat for the title was Cian Uijtdebroeks, his same-age Belgian compatriot who has already been the subject of a million euro transfer and significant hype that one day he will challenge for Grand Tour titles. Lecerf isn’t the replacement for Evenepoel, but he’s Quick-Step’s reminder to the cycling world that as they enter a Remco-less world, they’re still in the GC game.
And, let it be known, Lecerf has enormous potential. Signed to Quick-Step’s development team in 2023, joining from Lotto-Soudal’s U23 outfit, the Flanderien finished fifth at that year’s Tour de l’Avenir, and then won the U23 Il Lombardia. Promoted to the WorldTour team the year after, Lecerf finished second on GC in his first race at the AlUla Tour, before riding and completing the Vuelta a España as the eighth youngest in the race. This season his consistency has only improved, culminating with his recent victory at the Czech Tour.
“You see his results, and you see that he’s a winner,” his long-time coach Roman Vanstaen tells Rouleur, himself having moved to Quick-Step at the same time Lecerf did, at the rider’s request. “He has a lot of stuff to improve of course, but he just beat Cian Uijtdebroeks who for years has been the one who was going to dominate. There’s definitely big potential for Junior.”
Lecerf’s forte is his climbing. “He’s not a bad time triallist, but he’s a pure climber: he weighs 55kg so is very much a lightweight,” Vanstaen says. “At the moment his strength lies between the 15 to 30 minute climbs, but of course we hope to evolve towards longer climbs in the Grand Tours. He knows how to finish races off, his punch is good and he does quite well in sprints. He can wait until the end to make his move – he doesn’t have to ride solo. That comes naturally to him – we don’t train that extensively – so that’s also one of his strengths.”
In the absence of Evenepoel, the pressure on Lecerf’s young shoulders can only be expected to increase. Vanstaen paints a picture of a “timid guy, quiet, quite relaxed, not someone giving a speech to the team”, but also of a young rider comfortable in his skin as a prodigious talent. “He has confidence in himself and the Quick-Step performance staff. To win nowadays is not easy, and after Czech he was quite enthusiastic, but he quickly said that it wasn’t time to celebrate as the Vuelta is coming up.”
This Saturday, Lecerf starts the Spanish Grand Tour for the second successive year. Ostensibly he’s there in support of Landa, and is still figuring out what it takes to win at the highest echelons, but with each race he’s getting closer to the top. “He can do the required performance at the WorldTour,” Vanstaen says, “but it’s the chaos and positioning towards the important moments that he still needs experience in.
“I for sure see him winning GCs in one-week stage races, and being a good help on the climbs in Grand Tour for the bigger GC guys if they come to the team. In those hilly Classics, too, he can also do well, and Lombardia and Liège-Bastogne-Liège suit him well. He’s able to win bike races.”
As Quick-Step prepare to once again be a major player in the Classics, races on their home territory, Lecerf hopes to lead a reduced but still powerful cohort of GC riders. “There will always be GC quality in any Quick-Step squad going to a Grand Tour,” Vanstaen confidently predicts. “Competing for a podium might be a stretch, but I’m quite sure the ambition of being up there in GCs will continue.”
