Few teams generate discussion and criticism like Soudal Quick-Step. They’re not the richest team in the world, and nor do they have any plans of conquering all before them like UAE Team Emirates-XRG do. But when they’re not winning, the world of cycling can’t stop talking about it. The Belgian team is arguably the only team in cycling which draws the same amount of interest as football teams do. Everyone has an opinion and has their say on the successes and failures of the Wolfpack.
So a spring devoid of any significant triumph led the back pages in Belgium – the only country in the world where cycling coverage takes precedence over football – and prompted plenty of chatter on radio shows, podcasts, and social media. Quick-Step didn’t perform terribly – six wins from February to April, and a decent showing in the Classics including third at Paris-Roubaix through Jasper Stuyven – but they weren’t winning the big sprints and certainly weren’t competing for GC victories now Remco Evenepoel has departed. By the time of the Giro d'Italia, 12 WorldTour teams had won more than Quick-Step. By their standards, a history that goes back decades and has yielded in excess of 1,000 wins, there was a big margin for improvement.
But never doubt Soudal Quick-Step. They always find a way. And in Paul Magnier they possess a rider who is threatening to become the fastest sprinter in the world at the age of 22. The Frenchman, who picked up a whopping 25 victories last year, claimed his first Grand Tour stage win on day one of the 2026 Giro on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, and two days later he was at it again, denying the more experienced and more established sprinters like Jonathan Milan and Dylan Groenewegen.
In a bunch sprint in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia that wasn’t guaranteed to take place given that the trio of breakaway riders weren’t caught until 500m to go, the tall, lanky Magnier – a physique notably different to the broad shouldered Milan – was slingshot from his leadout train, hid behind Milan who went first as the road bent to the left, and then stamped furiously on his pedals as he picked a straight line through the middle. Milan to his right tried to keep pace, ditto Groenewegen to his left, but the photofinish painted a clear picture: Magnier was the fastest, again.
Two wins in three stages and all of a sudden Quick-Step are flying. Instead of criticism and pondering what they need to do to win the biggest races again, now the sport is marvelling at how the team led by Jurgen Foré have retaken their historic title as the sport’s best sprint team. Alpecin-Deceuninck, with Jasper Philipsen and Kaden Groves, stole it for a number of years, but with Magnier and Merlier – now seemingly recovered from a winter knee injury – no other team can match Quick-Step’s speed and firepower. Whenever and wherever there’s a sprint, Quick-Step ought to be the favourites.
“I have to say I feel really good that I can beat the best sprinters in the world,” Magnier said at the end, smiling a big cheesy grin as he did so. “We have to try to enjoy this moment and keep going like this for the team. This is something amazing.” If he keeps winning – and on this evidence it looks like he will – not only will he continue to enrich his growing palmarès but he’ll further demoralise his sprint rivals. In a discipline like sprinting where confidence and momentum is worth more than a few dozen watts, that can only work in Magnier’s favour.
“I dreamt about it and it was the goal to for the stage again,” Magnier added. “The team did an amazing job again, controlling all day. We had the plan to be in a really good spot with 1km to go and that's what we did.” Those are now just throwaway quotes, typical platitudes that a race winner must utter after a win. They reflect how well drilled Quick-Step’s sprint train is – how every one of the eight riders know their roles and know how to get the best out of their young leader.
The great Quick-Step teams of yesteryear were finely-tuned operations and machines, too. This 2026 version of Quick-Step looks like emulating those that came before them. It was a slow spring for the team, but now they’ve got going there looks like nothing can really get in their way. Not when Magnier is sprinting like this, anyway. It’s only his second Grand Tour, but he’s completely at home in this elite environment. The future of sprinting has arrived.
