Patrick Lefevere

Patrick Lefevere

Patrick Lefevere (born 6 January 1955 in Moorslede) is the Belgian cycling team manager of the Omega Pharma-Quick Step cycling team. He is from Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of the north. He was a professional racer from 1976 to 1979, winning Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne and the fourth stage in the Vuelta a España, both in 1978. He then became a team manager.

Lefevere was a sporting director of the Mapei of the 1990s, and he started the Domo-Farm Frites team of the early 2000s. Since 2003 he has been manager of the Quick Step team.

Lefevere managed teams with many one-day race specialists such as Johan Museeuw, Michele Bartoli, Paolo Bettini and Richard Virenque. At the end of 2005 he had two world champions: Tom Boonen on the road and Michael Rogers in the time trial.

Lefevere has suffered several heart diseases and now delegates the role of directeur-sportif to assistants.

Lefevere was accused of doping by a Belgian newspaper. Het Laatste Nieuws ran articles on 23 and 24 January 2007 entitled "Lefevere, 30 Years Of Dope" A court in Brussels subsequently ordered the paper to pay €500,000 in damages and costs.

Quotes

• "Whoever wins five of the former World Cup races in one year, as well as having a world champion [two, counting Michael Rogers, who left the team the following year], and has been in the firing line from January to October, can speak of a huge year."
• "It's hypocritical. Armstrong brought so much more international attention to cycling. I have a lot of strong feelings about this, so I better not say anything else."
• "I treat all my riders the same, but Johan Museeuw has a special place in my heart."
• Maybe we should sue Landis, why not? Why don't we use the American way? As long as Landis continues to claim he doesn't know about anything, such a scenario becomes more and more likely.
• I want to throw up when I hear him. Landis has turned the clock twenty years backwards.

External links

• Quick Step-Innergetic official website