ALPECIN'S WONDERFUL WILD CARD WEEK

Two-stage wins and six days in yellow was quite a return for Alpecin-Fenix, a team that began at the very bottom rung of Belgian cycling in 2008 but showed it can compete with and beat the world’s best in the Tour’s opening week

- Peter Cossins

Resplendent in yellow, cycling’s hottest property takes his seat for the post-Laval time trial press conference. Before the Tour de France press corps get a chance to ask him a question, Mathieu van der Poel starts listing names. He begins with AlpecinFenix’s directeur sportif Christoph Roodhooft followed by other members of the backroom staff. These were the people who had stayed up into the early hours, optimising his time trial set-up and, as a consequence, allowing him to pull off one of the most impressive and surprising TT performances in recent Tours.

The fact that the Dutchman showed his gratitude in this manner, upfront and without the slightest bit of prompting, is indicative of the spirit and sense of togetherness within the Belgian team.

Although new to the Tour, the team’s roots go deep, all the way back to 2008. Roodhooft had been a pro with Palmans for several seasons, while his brother Philip had become a member of the management after a playing career in lower league Belgian football. In 2007, Christoph’s final season as a racer, the 2004 cyclo-cross junior world champion, Niels Albert, joined the Palmans team, and the Roodhoofts took the young talent under their wing as he dealt with the fall-out from his parents’ divorce. He became almost a part of the Roodhooft family. The following year, the two brothers decided to form their own club team around Albert, who won the U23 world cyclo-cross title that season.