In the long and successful history of the Deceuninck-Quick-Step, so many historical victories have already been achieved that it is nowadays difficult for riders to surpass them. Except for one rider. He achieved success last season and achieved what many thought was impossible. We are now talking about Julian Alaphilippe.

The petite Frenchman already started winning in January in the Vuelta a San Juan and kept it up until the Tour de France, where he wore the yellow jersey, in addition to two stage victories, for no less than fourteen days. Only in stage 19 to Tignes, he had to bow his head to Egan Bernal. Earlier, he made his mark on the spring, with victories in the Strade Bianche, two stages in Tirreno-Adriatico, Milan-San Remo and La Fleche Wallonne. Add a second place in the Brabantse Pijl and fourth place in the Amstel Gold Race and you can be sure that Alaphilippe was the man of the spring cammaign.

With 68 victories, Deceuninck-Quick-Step once again became the most winning WorldTour team. The largest share in that number is for Elia Viviani. The Italian top sprinter was good for ten victories. Fabio Jakobsen was again victorious. In his second year, the Dutchman again recorded seven victories for the team, including the Dutch championship, the Scheldeprijs and two stage victories in La Vuelta.

At the cobblestone classics, traditionally the favored races of the team, the team once again managed to leave an indelible mark. Zdenek Stybar immediately got off to a good start at the end of February in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and a day later Bob Jungels did the same in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Florian Sénéchal won Le Samyn, Stybar also won the E3 BinckBank Classic, Jakobsen again won the Scheldeprijs. It all ended in style with an impressive victory in Paris-Roubaix by Philippe Gilbert. The experienced Walloon could cross-off his fourth monument. Only Milan-San Remo is still missing on his record.


Then there was the startling first professional year of Remco Evenepoel. The young Belgian tempered expectations at the start of his cycling year. Nevertheless, he surprised friend and foe with his achievements. That started in January in the Vuelta a San Juan, where he had a long-term view of winning in the time trial. He ended up third. The only 19-year-old REV did not have to wait for a long time for his first victory. In the Baloise Belgium Tour he was too fast for everyone in the second stage to Zottegem. He would finally also win the final GC. By far the most impressive was his solo victory in the Clásica San Sebastián, where the course served as a red carpet for his class. These achievements earned him almost all the Belgian sports prizes that were awarded at the end of the season.


The only place where Deceuninck-Quick-Step appeared a little less were the general classifications. Their were only 3 stage races won by a rider of our team; Baloise Belgium Tour (Evenepoel), Tour of Slovakia (Yves Lampaert) and the Tour of Guangxi (Enric Mas). The latter rider had a solid season - he finished fourth in the Algarve, 14th in the Basque Country, 22nd in the Tour - but missed the outlier from a year earlier when he finished on the podium of the Vuelta.

Let’s now present our eleven new riders for 2020, of which Sam Bennett is the most appealing rider. The Irish sprinter was at the center of a long-running transfer soap. For a long time BORA-hansgrohe did not want to give in to his wish to leave. He was passed by the German team in 2019 for the Tour de France.

We strengthened our selection in particular by attracting Mattia Cattaneo, Bert Van Lerberghe, Davide Ballerini, Stijn Steels and Andrea Bagioli. The team again invested heavily in talent development by attracting Jannik Steimle, Ian Garrison, Andrea Bagioli and João .. Mauri Vansevenant is also part of The Wolfpack from this year on. The 20-year-old son of former pro Wim Vansevenant showed his talent by winning the Giro Valle d'Aosta and finishing sixth in the rankings of the Tour de l'Avenir.


Opposite the arrival of the eleven riders is the departure of eight riders, and those are not the least. Two of the leaders have searched for new places. Gilbert returns to Lotto Soudal after eight years. Sprinter Elia Viviani continues his career at Cofidis, which makes the move to WorldTour. In his wake, he has taken lead-out Fabio Sabatini with him. His colleague with the same role, Maximiliano Richeze has switched to UAE Emirates, where he is reunited with Fernando Gaviria.
The team also had to say goodbye to Enric Mas (second in the Vuelta 2018). The talented Spanish rider is the new big man at Movistar. And although he could resign, Petr Vakoc decided to look for new places. The Czech, who was hit by a truck in South Africa in January 2018 and had to recover for sixteen months, is a new teammate of Mathieu van der Poel. At Alpecin-Fenix, he will form the head trio in the classical spring together with the Dutchman and Tim Merlier. We wish him all the best luck!

IN		OUT
João Almeida	Hagens Berman Axeon	Eros Capecchi	Bahrain - McLaren
Shane Archbold	BORA - Hansgrohe	Philippe Gilbert	Lotto Soudal
Andrea Bagioli	Team Colpack	Davide Martinelli	Astana Pro Team
Davide Ballerini	Astana Pro Team	Enic Mas	Movistar Team
Sam Bennett	BORA - Hansgrohe	Maximiliano Richeze	UAE Emirates
Mattia Cattaneo	Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec	Fabio Sabatini	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
Ian Garrison	Hagens Berman Axeon	Petr Vakoc	Alpecin - Fenix
Stijn Steels	Roompot-Charles	Elia Viviani	Cofidis
Jannik Steimle	Team Vorarlberg Santic
Bert Van Lerberghe	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
Mauri Vansevenant	-

Deceuninck-Quick-Step wants to continue its course in 2020. The Belgian team will again aim - not surprisingly - at the cobblestone classics this year. A major replacement for Philippe Gilbert has not been recruited, so just as in recent years the talents from our own ranks have the opportunity to stand up and grow to stars. The core for the Flemish spring will again consist of Kasper Asgreen, Tim Declerq, Jungels, Iljo Keisse, Yves Lampaert, Florian Sénéchal and Zdenek Stybar. Complemented by newcomers Davide Ballerini, Jannik Steimle and Bert Van Lerberghe.

The program of Alaphilippe is not yet complete. The Frenchman, for example, does not yet know whether he will defend his victories in the Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo. But Tirreno-Adriatico is definitely not on his program. Instead, he opts for races in Argentina (Vuelta a San Juan) and Colombia (Tour Colombia 2.1) and then to start at Paris-Nice. In April, some cobble classics and the Walloon triptych is then on the schedule. In the Tour de France, Alaphilippe has no ambition for the general classification, but it’s all-in for stage victories.


The Tour de France is very important. Especially for Alaphilippe and Sam Bennet, but otherwise there is also the Giro d’Italia. I can confirm that this will be the Grand Tour in which Remco Evenepoel will make his debut. The big question is how far he will be able to get in the general classification, although he says he is mainly aiming [img-r]https://i.imgur.com/AIgLfIz.png[/img-r]for stage success. Someone who also wants to do that is Fabio Jakobsen. The Giro is on the program of the Dutch champion. For the one-week rounds (and the Giro), James Knox moves up a spot in the pecking order. The young Brit, one of the Deceuninck-Quick-Step surprises of 2019, no longer has to tolerate Mas and therefore has a little more leeway.

VoetsT wrote:
I add the introduction.
Enjoy

VoetsT wrote:
Ohw ohw, I think I messed up my database
Last night, I was editing my save game and now my game keeps on crashing
I'm quite new to database manipulation so I think I did someting wrong. But the bad part is that I don't now what.
So I think, this is done before it started (again )

I'm moving to a new house, so I don't have that much time to start something new atm. I hope to be back soon with a story I can get to a decent start.

I hope you don't mind. And thanks for the support up to this point.
I will stay active on the forum and support other stories as much as possible.

Thomas

VoetsT wrote:
Okay guys, stick with me please but we are back at Deceuninck.
After I messed up my UAE career savegame, I will not start with that team again. I was racing already tour of Oman. To do 2 times the same preparation, same races, writing the same reports, ... I didn't want that.
So last night I started a new save with Deceuninck. I hope you don't mind this plot twist and will still follow my journey.

Hope to see you soon!

Oh btw, intro is already been 'fixed'.

Thomas