Strong and successful men often evoke emotions. Patrick Lefevere evokes them literally and figuratively. He does not hesitate to criticize anyone, at any time, including his subordinates. He only occasionally compliments someone.

By the way, there is also a strong Czech trail. Starting next year, Czech cyclist Jan Hirt will join his brilliant team. In contrast, Zdeněk tybar left after 11 years.

The 67-year-old Flemish veteran is behind the rise of young driver Remko Evenepoel, who has now destroyed the competition in the Spanish Vuelta, as well as the success of two-time cycling world champion Julian Alaphilipp. This year alone, his team called “Wolf Pack” has more than 30 wins behind him. Last year there was even more.

The Deceuninck-QuickStep stable has won nearly twenty cycling world titles and 21 classic monuments under the leadership of a Belgian rider since 2003. Nobody has managed to do that.

The only major Grand Tours that Lefevere hasn’t had are the Tour de France, the Giro or the Vuelta. Although… maybe things will change in Spain now. Evenepoel drove after the first ten days in the red jersey of the main contenders with a huge lead by almost three minutes.

The team doesn’t have the biggest budget, the drivers don’t have the biggest salaries, but it’s still one of the most professional stables in the world. It has a clear hierarchy, experienced management and great experts from the sporting director, through analysts, doctors and nutritionists. There’s never been a chance here.

How is that possible? Credit Lefever because he is the brains and strategist of this successful project. “He is the best team-guiding spirit in his sport. Probably the best team in any sport right now,” said sports expert Richard Williams of The Guardian recently.

Lefever and managerial palmar racing spanned four decades. But the people who raise the most successful teams of modern times are also, according to some, uninformed and out of date. Perhaps many others want to be uninformed and out of date. Deceuninck-QuickStep has been one of the three most successful teams in the world for the last three years.

Lefevere wasn’t just a brilliant boss. He was accompanied by controversy after controversy. He had stopped everything for now. Take, for example, the incident in San Juan, Argentina, a few years ago, where “Wolf Pack” racers posed for a photo with a female fan and Iljo Keisse was kicked out of the race for making obscene gestures right behind him while posing for a photo. The woman complained at the time, but Lefevere strongly objected, saying that she was only after money.

“I’m heterosexual. Sometimes it’s too straight,” Lefevere said in an interview with the professional website Cyclist. “But you can never catch me in a lie. When I have nothing to say, I prefer to be silent. But I prefer my style to someone who looks pretty but isn’t pretty on the inside.”

QuickStep, in its various guises, has accumulated one win after another over the years. And also a place on the podium. Second and third place, however, did not appeal to Lefever. They are just footnotes. A big boss driven by victory. The second and third are just signals that everyone needs to try harder.

This was also the great misfortune of Zdenek tybar, who “only” twice came second in the monuments of the Paris-Roubaix monument. Had he won, he would have been immortal to Lefever. But not like this, and the Belgian veteran did not renew his contract with the Czech this year.

It was always the quality over quantity of wins that was touted and fueled Lefever, who were constantly fighting for a good budget. “I feel like an accountant. I always have to raise money, while many of my competitors are backed by the government: Lotto-Soudal, Astana, FDJ… If there’s a hole in our finances, I’ll pay. And I’m not used to putting personal money into the team. I… I’m used to playing with numbers and calculating well.”

This can sometimes seem cruel to the rider. “Riders are a balance. You have to manage their strengths and weaknesses to maintain your credit. Of course, I prefer to keep our stronger drivers, and I do that whenever possible. Tom Boonen spent 15 years with me, Johan Museeuw 11, Terpstra eight .” We add that Zdeněk tybar 11 years.

But the racer is temporary, Lefevere admits. Cycling is a notoriously fragile business model, crippled by a lack of television revenue, tickets and transfers, meaning contracts usually don’t last more than three years and often just one year. On the other hand, the permanent foundation of any team – athletic director, assistant, marketing staff – is invaluable.

“The people around you are the structure of your house. If you build on sand, it will collapse. If you have a good foundation, you will stay strong. Wilfried Peeters, former competitor, now sporting director, has been with me for 25 years. years, Yvan Vanmol, doctor, 26 years, Alessandro Tegner, communications manager, 19 years,” Lefevere emphasized.

QuickStep has long been the team’s main sponsor. But despite the millions the flooring company has poured into the team, it’s still somewhere in the middle of a stable World Tour in terms of budget.

For Lefever, this means not buying expensive famous racers, but maximizing efforts to get talented young drivers. That’s why he became so adept at finding pearls at the bottom of the ocean. These are the examples from Julian Alaphilipp and Remco Evenepoel already mentioned. However, other strong players – like Jumbo-Visma or INEOS – have also seen this model.

Alaphilippa Lefevere was listed when the young Frenchman finished second at the Junior Cyclocross World Championships in 2010. He is 17 years old, a huge talent. He watched him throughout the season and then signed him.

Similar to Remco Evenepoel. At the age of 19, the Belgian leapfrogged the Under-23 category, dominating the junior rankings and winning 23 of the 35 races he participated in 2018, including double gold at the European and World Championships. Some started calling him “the new Eddy Merckx.” “I’ve never seen anyone so good at his age,” said Lefevere.

How does “The Big Boss” find and nurture talent for its winning team? “Every rider is different. We have a physical test and then a psychological test. We have a very good system to understand the character of the rider,” said Lefevere. The test results are accompanied by observations. And if not all of them are positive, there is only one solution. “I never waste time with a loser. If they have a loser personality, they will stay like that forever and only be with me for a short time…”

Have you understood him? He is big mouthed, but man at the same time. What about other scandals? Last year she was asked about the possibility of creating a women’s team. “With all due respect, I’m not a welfare center,” he replied harshly. He added that he bets a lot on Belgian cyclists, but he doesn’t see good female riders himself. He killed several people. Journalist Robyn Davidson tweeted outrageously: “It makes me sick… This kind of flawed attitude keeps happening in my sport.”

But sometimes Lefevere “throws grenades” at his own ranks and provokes his riders through the media. Before the start of the Vuelta, he faced Alaphilipp himself. “I didn’t pay him to win the World Cup,” Lefevere told De Morgen newspaper. “I hope he doesn’t repeat the trick of last year, when he rode the Tour de France in preparation for the World Cup. It might happen every now and then, but basically, I’m not paying him for this. I hope he will show something at the Vuelta, not just useful for Evenepoel,” he told the French rider who was looking to score a hat-trick of victory at the World Championships in Wollongong, Australia, in late September.

He himself had a strange career. He turned professional at the age of 21, winning Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne and a stage at the Vuelta, then mysteriously retired in 1980, at the age of 25. No injuries, no health problems, he just quit. And he soon turns into the sporting director of the team he plays for.

Today he adds an interesting context to it. “A great driver is not necessarily a good boss. They don’t know how “normal” riders feel. How can you explain to someone how they need to grow if you have never felt the pain yourself? Winning is easy. But before you teach someone to win, you have to fail.”