This article was first published in Rouleur Issue 142

Sport lends itself to reminiscing. The 90s Chicago Bulls, Brazilian football between 1958-1970, the New Zealand All Blacks’ era of dominance and Aussie cricket in the noughties all occupy significant corners in sport’s collective memory. However, sporting history is often divisive. For every United fan fondly remembering the Ferguson years, there is a Gunner adamant that the Invincibles were the pinnacle of English football. A Liverpudlian would point to The Reds of the 70s and 80s, Forest supporters to ‘The Clough Miracle’, Man City to Guardiola’s current tutelage… and on and on. By its nature, not all sports fans will be nostalgic about every era.

However, due to its sponsor-driven squads, cycling is less tribal than most sports. While fanbases do rally around teams, they often do so based on the nationalities, backgrounds and personalities of the individual riders. Even in cycling’s most factional bastion that is Belgium, fans would not begrudge their favourite rider moving from one team to another.

It’s in Belgium where, for a generation, one of the most eminent cycling teams in history – Quick-Step – dominated one of cycling’s most iconic domains, the Classics. When cycling fans are asked to name an epochal team, the Quick-Step Classics squad from the noughties and 2010s will universally be one that springs to mind. From its inception in 2003 to now, Quick-Step has claimed 22 Monument victories, including eight wins at the Ronde van Vlaanderen and six at Paris-Roubaix – the jewels of the cobbled Classics.

However, so far the 2020s have produced the driest spring campaigns in Quick-Step’s history. Can you feel nostalgic about something that still exists? Or as Andy Bernard said in The Office, I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you actually left them. Are the good old days of Quickstep no longer?

“We have had some rough years. We have struggled for a few years,” admitted Tom Steels, a sports director at Soudal Quick-Step, the team’s current name. The team hasn't won a major one-day Classic (The Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Gent-Wevelgem, E3 Saxo Classic, Dwars door Vlaanderen) since 2021.

The last few years might have been barren in the cobbled Classics, but the team had plenty of sustenance elsewhere thanks to the harvesting of Remco Evenepoel, including a Vuelta a España red jersey, third at the Tour de France and two Liège-Bastogne-Liège titles. But with departure of the Belgian superstar to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and the signing of Classics riders, like Dylan van Baarle and Jasper Stuyven (both Monument winners), a revival of the Quick-Step of old, clad in blue, packing the cobbled lanes and bergs, could be brewing.

“I'm really convinced we're going to be competitive. If we’re going to win or lose, that's up to the conditions of the day, but I think we will not be absent – we will be there with a good squad and our jerseys will be in the front.” Steels is as bullish in the team car as he was as a rider who claimed nine Tour stages and two Gent-Wevelgem titles. So is that revival in 2026 going to happen? To fully understand Quick-Step’s potential Classics renaissance, we have to go back to the team’s beginning and its identity.

The Classic origin story

Quick-Step had been part of cycling before as the secondary sponsor of Mapei–Quick-Step, the dominant Classics force of the 90s. Born from Mapei’s ashes in 2002, Quick-Step–Davitamon was the answer to Belgian longing. Backed by the flooring brand as the primary sponsor, the new team had an identity that was blue-collar, like their kit, and was stacked with hard riders, built for hard races.

Quick-Step unites Flemish and Walloons. In its 23-year history, it has been home to superstars on both sides of the Taalgrens / Frontière Linguistique (the Belgian language border) like Tom Boonen from Mol in the north and Philippe Gilbert from Verviers in the Liège province.

Down the years, the team has boasted an embarrassment of riches, homegrown talent like Stijn Devolder, Yves Lampaert, Tim Merlier and Evenepoel, but also those from beyond Belgium’s borders; Filippo Pozzato, Kasper Asgreen, Julian Alaphilippe, Niki Terpstra and Paolo Bettini all won Monuments during their time at Quick-Step. Other international stars included Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel, Zdeněk Štybar, Tony Martin, Michał Kwiatkowski, Rigaberto Uran, Enric Mas and Matteo Trentin.

And the team won a lot, over 1000 times at UCI races – a record. For over 15 years, they commanded the Spring Classics and beyond, thanks to their racing style characterised by a highly aggressive, opportunistic and collective approach, which inspired the team’s self-dubbed nickname: The Wolfpack.

Yes, Quick-Step had superstars like Boonen, but often their victories came from racing as a collective and overwhelming their opposition. Steels is clear about the importance of a strong, cohesive team: “If you go into the final of a race and you are still surrounded by two riders from your team, that gives you some comfort and boost in confidence. Also, if you're there alone with other riders from different teams who have a lot of experience, you tend to get too nervous, or in a split second you don't know what to do.”

Steels’ insistence on bolstering a Classics squad was based on the back of a period where they have been relatively light in the Spring campaigns compared to other teams, like Alpecin-Premier Tech, Visma-Lease a Bike, Lidl-Trek and UAE Team Emirates-XRG, and have consequently lost their crowns as kings of the cobbles, a reign which was once undisputed.

The Evenepoel era and leaving Lefevere’s long shadow

Evenepoel’s tilt at Grand Tours featured a concerted effort to build a climbing squad around their leader, which came at the expense of their abilities at the Classics. Where previously the team would have been scouting and snapping up young talent ready for the cobblestones of Belgium and France, they were on the lookout for suitable lieutenants capable of helping Evenepoel in the high mountain passes of stage races.

Evenepoel is not the only significant departure in recent seasons. The team’s founder and long-time linchpin Patrick Lefevere stepped back at the end of 2024. The former CEO had the ability to keep sponsors on board, spot emerging talent, convince them to join and, most importantly, foster that ‘wolfpack’ mentality.

The team’s current manager, Jurgen Foré speaking at the start of the 2026 season, was full of praise for his predecessor: “What Patrick built was phenomenal. But like in top sport, you cannot stand still, and that's also okay at a certain age, you need to let go, and you need to have confidence that other people can come and do it. I share the same passion about this team as Patrick.”

Quick-Step, like any great sporting dynasty, does seem like more than just a team, but rather an institution. But cycling and the Classics have changed and keeping up with the times is necessary. While the 2010s were controlled by the collective might of Quick-Step in the Classics and Team Sky at the Tour de France, the 2020s have been more about dominant individuals. More and more, if a team wants to win a major one-day and they don’t have among their ranks either Tadej Pogačar or Mathieu van der Poel, they are up against it. Since the turn of the decade, the pair have won 18 of the available 25 Monuments.

But for Steels, he is adamant that there is still a place for wolfpack racing, but it will require them being more active earlier in the races.

“If you have to compete against Pogačar and Van der Poel, you need the numbers. Of course, they also have strong teams. So, I think at every opportunity we get we have to take it. We cannot leave them at ease.

“It's good for the sport. Looking at it as a spectator outside of a team, what they do for the sport is incredible — they are incredible riders. But that doesn't mean when I step into the role as a sport director, that I lay back and race for second. I just want to find a plan with our riders to make it as hard as possible for them.”

In fact, Steels believes having more of a cohesive Classics squad is even more important in this age of racing, which is more attritional and demanding than in the past.

“We need the collective. Now we have the numbers to start more with fresh riders. If you see how the Classics have been raced recently, every final starts at 120 km to go. You really have to be ‘full in’ for one race and the recovery often takes more than two days to be fresh again for the next one, physically as well as mentally. So, now we have the numbers to start more with a fresh team with different goals,” he explains.

This takes some management. Like in any high-performing environment with multiple competitive stars under one roof, avoiding conflict while at the same time giving the riders their own opportunities, is a delicate balance — one Quick-Step has mastered over the years. So, how do they do it so well?

“It's by giving everybody a chance over the whole year, but also the selection of riders which you take on. There were good riders that really didn't fit into the team and we had to say, ‘Okay, after two years, we had a good collaboration, but I think we're going to choose other riders’.

“You have to be a collective rider. That doesn't mean you cannot have your own ambitions, but in the end, to win races, you really need a strong collective,” said Steels.

The newest Classics signings of Van Baarle, Stuyven and Laurenz Rex have all proven to be willing to work for others in their previous squads. As have the existing members of the team; in the Classics squad, riders like Lampaert and Mauri Vansevenant, but also the non-Classics men like Mikel Landa and Ilan Van Wilder, all have considerable experience of working for the benefit of the team as a whole. This philosophy extends to all ages as well as terrains. While Van Baarle and Stuyven are nearer the end of their careers than the start, there are others, like Paul Magnier, who have found a home in The Wolfpack.

“If a young rider comes into the team, they are always welcomed by the others because you need the young riders of 19-20 years old. Everybody has to prove himself, but at the table there is no competition, they can talk to each other and they enjoy the team atmosphere, because that is the only way to maintain strength in this environment. Especially now because you see a lot of young riders struggling with mental problems. Plenty stop at a young age, and we have to try and avoid that. Cycling still requires a long-term view. You get stronger year by year. There is always stress — that's in every competition — but you have to balance it a bit and that's what we try to do within the team,” said Steels.

How does Steels feel the latest pack of wolves are shaping up?

“I think the atmosphere in the team is really good. You always see it on training camps. Everybody talks to everybody, there is a really good atmosphere during training. Nobody complains that it's too hard or too tough. They just do it and they do it with a smile. So then, you know, they are getting each other to a higher level. I can see their motivation”

For nostalgia to get a hold, it needs to come from a familiarity and consistency. From the mid noughties to five years ago, a Quick-Step rider on the podium of a cobbled Classic was a guarantee. Some things have changed: riders and managers have moved on and new opponents have risen up. But others are still there: The familiar blue kit, the iconic Quick-Step logo and that desire to compete in the hardest races of them all. Will things go back to the way they were before? There are plenty in and beyond Belgium who pine for the Wolfpack to howl at full voice again.

Imagery: Getty