Quick Step trainer talks of problems keeping riders hydrated in hot, dusty Paris-Roubaix
Paris-Roubaix has not gone to plan for Quick Step. Team leader and talisman Tom Boonen suffered a mechanical problem in the Arenberg forest, then crashed out while trying to chase back on, while Sylvain Chavanel has also been beset with punctures and crashes; the result is that the Belgian team, which once owned this race, now has no chance of a result in the Queen of the Classics.
“This is a race where everything can happen,” the team’s trainer and sports director Tom Steels told Velonation at the start. “We have a lot of good riders I think. For sure Tom and Sylvain are going to be the first guys for us, but in Paris-Roubaix you never know, eh?
“Also the other ones are quite good on the cobbles; it depends how the race is going to go.”
Unfortunately for Quick Step though, the race went away from the team, but as a trainer, and a former rider who has finished on the podium of the race, Steels knows too well what a hot, dry and dusty race means for the riders. These are issues that will be common to all teams in the race.
“It doesn’t make a difference [to the race]”, he said, “it makes it maybe a little bit safer. When it rains there’s a little more risk; it’s dusty so the most important thing is drink, drink, drink.
“It’s going to be above 20 degrees; especially on the cobbles, and with the dust, it’s very important to have a lot of drink.”
One of the big problems in Pais-Roubaix though, is that late in the race, when the cobbled sectors are close together, riders can have their bottles shaken free on the stones and it can be tough to get replacements.
“Normally we organise it on every [sector] of cobbles there’s going to be one of the team to give [the riders] bottles, because every [sector] you lose a bottle; so let’s hope everything goes well.”