{"id":195078,"date":"2024-02-23T08:16:20","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T08:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=195078"},"modified":"2024-02-23T08:16:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T08:16:20","slug":"wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Wheels Roundup: The Lefevere-Alaphilippe Feud Heats Up and Other News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patrick Lefevere, the highly successful general manager of Soudal Quick-Step was never one for diplomacy. But now his critical fusillades targeting his struggling two-time world road race champion Julian Alaphilippe may have caused collateral damage, namely Alaphilippe\u2019s partner, the Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And Rousse is firing back. Lefevere suggested that the French rider\u2019s lapse in form was not due to the horrific accident he suffered in the 2022 Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a> but was down to his relationship with Rousse and their lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo much partying, too much alcohol,\u201d Lefevere told the Belgian magazine Humo<\/em> as reported by Cyclingnews<\/em><\/a>. \u201cJulian is seriously under the influence of Marion Rousse. Maybe too much. Julian is a young dog full of energy, you have to let him cross the yard once in a while. And you also have to say: up to here and no further. There is still a bad boy inside him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ouch! Of course, Rousse responded immediately, taking to Instagram<\/a> where she has 351,000 followers. \u201cWhatever Mr. Lefevere’s feelings towards me, it’s unacceptable to attack our private lives as he is doing,\u201d Rousse wrote on Wednesday. \u201cBut no, I don’t drink alcohol, like never. We don’t drink at parties either because with a three-year-old, we prefer to be in form in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou won’t succeed either, as you’ve already told me, in preventing me from working with and staying with Julian for the duration of his career. I’m passionate about what I do, and I’ve got lots of plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I’m telling you, under no circumstances will I allow you to talk about my private life. From now on, please stop talking out of turn and show a little more respect and… class.\u201d<\/p>\n

The message received nearly 42,000 likes. This sounds like a feud without end \u2013 and may mean that Alaphilippe\u2019s days at Soudal are numbered as he is in the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n

Yates abandons UAE Tour with concussion suffered in crash<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Tadej Poga\u010dar and his UAE Team Emirates will be breathing a sigh of relief today after learning that the crash that took Adam Yates out of the UAE Tour on Wednesday\u2019s stage 3 caused him to suffer \u201conly\u201d a concussion and he will probably lose no more than a week or two of training. When Yates hit the asphalt with about 30 km to go in the stage, it looked like it could have been worse as both his helmeted head and shoulder struck the ground with real force. It took the 31-year-old Brit a while to remount and he soon caught up with the peloton but shortly after the riders started on the final climb of the stage, Yates got off his bike and was taken away in the team car.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn’t remember hitting the ground, so our thoughts are with him,\u201d said Yates\u2019s teammate and the UAE Tour’s new overall leader\u00a0Jay Vine<\/a>\u00a0after the finish of the stage. \u201cIt’s not the way you want to see one of your teammates leave the bike race.\u201d<\/p>\n

A more serious injury that would have cost Yates a substantial loss of training would have been bad news for Poga\u010dar who will again depend on Yates on those Tour de France killer climbs.<\/p>\n

Social media mocks Evenepoel after he blames gear issue for loss<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Finally, when Remco Evenepoel (Soudal\u2013Quick Step) finished second in the final stage of the Volta ao Algarve on Sunday, he blamed<\/a> his failure to beat the stage winner, Dani Martinez, on a gearing problem with his bike that forced him to ride the final 20 km on the big chain ring, which meant that he had to work very hard on the stage\u2019s final climb. Climbing on the big ring \u201ckilled my legs because I\u2019m a guy that likes to have a high cadence,\u201d he said. \u201cBut with the big gear on the whole climb, I felt that my legs were out of energy [in the final sprint]. Which is a pity, because I think I could have won today.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t help that he had already been outsprinted by Martinez on a previous summit finish in the race and that the ambitious Belgian is targeting the Tour de France this year, against climbers that are a notch or two better than Martinez. His comments provoked an avalanche of social media criticism that suggests he is not universally admired.<\/p>\n

It needs to be said that despite all his troubles, Evenepoel managed to win the race thanks to a typically dominant time trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrick Lefevere, the highly successful general manager of Soudal Quick-Step was never one for diplomacy. But now his critical fusillades […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":195080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[1099,1887,5781,648,3544,3415],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-195078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-adam-yates","tag-julian-alaphilippe","tag-marion-rousse","tag-patrick-lefevere","tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-tadej-pogacar","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Lefevere-Alaphilippe Feud Heats Up and Other News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Patrick Lefevere, the highly successful general manager of Soudal Quick-Step was never one for diplomacy. But now his critical fusillades targeting his\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wheels Roundup: The Lefevere-Alaphilippe Feud Heats Up and Other News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Patrick Lefevere, the highly successful general manager of Soudal Quick-Step was never one for diplomacy. But now his critical fusillades targeting his\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-23T08:16:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/Julian-Alaphilippe-profimedia-0837634866-CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tereza\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siegfried Mortkowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/\",\"name\":\"The Lefevere-Alaphilippe Feud Heats Up and Other News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/Julian-Alaphilippe-profimedia-0837634866-CVR.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-23T08:16:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926\"},\"description\":\"Patrick Lefevere, the highly successful general manager of Soudal Quick-Step was never one for diplomacy. But now his critical fusillades targeting his\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/Julian-Alaphilippe-profimedia-0837634866-CVR.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/Julian-Alaphilippe-profimedia-0837634866-CVR.webp\",\"width\":990,\"height\":660,\"caption\":\"Julian Alaphilippe\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wheels Roundup: The Lefevere-Alaphilippe Feud Heats Up and Other News\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine\",\"alternateName\":\"\u0160koda WLC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926\",\"name\":\"tereza\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"tereza\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/tereza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Lefevere-Alaphilippe Feud Heats Up and Other News","description":"Patrick Lefevere, the highly successful general manager of Soudal Quick-Step was never one for diplomacy. But now his critical fusillades targeting his","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wheels Roundup: The Lefevere-Alaphilippe Feud Heats Up and Other News","og_description":"Patrick Lefevere, the highly successful general manager of Soudal Quick-Step was never one for diplomacy. But now his critical fusillades targeting his","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","article_published_time":"2024-02-23T08:16:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":990,"height":660,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/Julian-Alaphilippe-profimedia-0837634866-CVR.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"tereza","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Siegfried Mortkowitz","Est. reading time":"4"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/","name":"The Lefevere-Alaphilippe Feud Heats Up and Other News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/Julian-Alaphilippe-profimedia-0837634866-CVR.webp","datePublished":"2024-02-23T08:16:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926"},"description":"Patrick Lefevere, the highly successful general manager of Soudal Quick-Step was never one for diplomacy. But now his critical fusillades targeting his","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/Julian-Alaphilippe-profimedia-0837634866-CVR.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2024\/02\/Julian-Alaphilippe-profimedia-0837634866-CVR.webp","width":990,"height":660,"caption":"Julian Alaphilippe"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2024\/02\/23\/wheels-roundup-the-lefevere-alaphilippe-feud-heats-up-and-other-news\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wheels Roundup: The Lefevere-Alaphilippe Feud Heats Up and Other News"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine","alternateName":"\u0160koda WLC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/50f01ecd18718d2333cf72e823c4f926","name":"tereza","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f9eb71be33845f0afabce3791bc1c58ecdb0a25c62964987e5dbcf7a20d2ec7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"tereza"},"url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/tereza\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195078"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195081,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195078\/revisions\/195081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195078"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=195078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}