Italian Filippo Pozzato has told La Gazzetta Dello Sport that Quick-Step team leader Tom Boonen asked him to chase down Stijn Devolder during this past weekends Tour of Flanders. The race was Boonen's chance to make the history books with three wins in one of cycling's Monuments.
Patrick Lefevere has dismissed the claims saying to Het Nieuwsblad that he saw a smiling Boonen cross the finish line and act normally after the race - not the behavior you would expect from a man that is upset about the result.
A large part of being a successful cyclist is your mental state, and one could certainly see how Boonen might taunt his competition, perhaps saying something like, "Go ahead, chase Devolder down. I'd be happy to counter if you catch him. And *if* you can stay with me you'll be so tired I will easily beat you in a two-up sprint."
A frustrated Pozzato said, "I do not understand why he was always on my wheel and did not wish to attack me?" The short answer is that Boonen had a team to work with and Pozzato didn't.
Whether the comments are a ploy by Pozzato to cause a distraction within his strongest rival or a chink in the armor of the Quick-Step team remains to be seen. To be fair, one can't discount the fact that his quotes were taken out of context.
History shows that Lefevere knows how to run a team that contains multiple leaders, and with two Belgians that have won the Tour of Flanders twice, he will certainly have a big test of his skills.