Soudal-Quick-Step Eye Cobbles Revival at Roubaix: Van Baarle and Stuyven Lead Wolfpack Return
For the first time in what feels like a generation, Soudal-Quick-Step are heading into Paris-Roubaix as unapologetic cobbled Classics specialists. The Belgian squad, reborn this winter around two of the most decorated pavé riders in the peloton, will line up on Sunday at Compiègne with Dylan van Baarle and Jasper Stuyven as their joint leaders — a combined 14 top-ten Monument results across two riders and the sort of firepower the Wolfpack has not assembled for Roubaix since the golden years of Tom Boonen.
The Belgian team's 2026 reinvention began the moment Remco Evenepoel's transfer to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe was finalised last summer. Faced with the departure of their generational talent and the guaranteed Grand Tour points that came with him, team owner Zdeněk Bakala and manager Patrick Lefevere made the deliberate decision to pivot back to the squad's historical roots. The Wolfpack of old — Boonen, Cancellara's rival, the team that dominated the cobbled spring for a decade and a half — was to be rebuilt from scratch around proven Monument winners.
Van Baarle was the marquee signing. The Dutchman, who won Paris-Roubaix in 2022 in the colours of Ineos Grenadiers before two seasons with Visma-Lease a Bike, joined on a three-year contract through 2028. Stuyven, who had spent eleven seasons at Trek-Segafredo and its various incarnations, followed in December, ending a long association with the American-owned squad to return to a Belgian team for the first time since his development days. Both riders spoke openly at their unveiling in Calpe about the emotional pull of joining a team whose Belgian cobbled identity matched their own career ambitions.
"When I won Roubaix in 2022, I thought that would be the peak of my career," Van Baarle told reporters this week at the team's final pre-race training camp in Kortrijk. "But I was wrong. The chance to come here and help rebuild a team that has always meant so much in these races — that is what motivates me now. I want to deliver a Monument for the Wolfpack in my first spring with them. That is the plan."
Stuyven, meanwhile, has long had an unfinished relationship with Paris-Roubaix. The 33-year-old Belgian has finished on the podium of Milan-San Remo and won the E3 Saxo Classic in 2018, but a top result at the Hell of the North has always eluded him. A sixth place in 2019 remains his best finish on the cobbles, and he has openly admitted that the chance to lead a Belgian team at their home Monument was one of the decisive factors in his transfer. "The feeling of putting on the Soudal-Quick-Step jersey at Roubaix is different," Stuyven said. "There is a history here that matters. I want to honour it."
Supporting the two leaders will be a squad designed for the chaos of the pavé. Yves Lampaert, who has been with the Wolfpack since 2014 and knows every kilometre of the northern French cobbles by heart, returns as road captain after recovering from a virus that forced him to miss much of February. Fellow Belgian Dries Van Gestel, Slovakian puncheur Martin Svrček and cobble-hardened Luxembourger Laurenz Rex round out what the team are privately describing as the most complete Roubaix squad they have brought to the race since 2018.
Tactically, the plan is believed to be aggressive. With two leaders capable of launching independent moves, Soudal-Quick-Step have the numbers to force the race in the middle sectors rather than waiting for a reactive finale. Team sources suggest that Van Baarle and Stuyven will be given complete freedom from the Trouée d'Arenberg onwards, with Lampaert and Svrček acting as workhorses in the opening 200 kilometres to keep both leaders fresh. If one attacks, the other plays defence. It is the classic Wolfpack playbook that Boonen and Niki Terpstra once executed with such devastating effect.
The challenge, of course, is that the peloton has changed dramatically since those halcyon days. Mathieu van der Poel is chasing a fourth consecutive Roubaix title. Tadej Pogacar is attempting to complete his career Monument Grand Slam. And Lidl-Trek, Alpecin-Deceuninck and UAE Team Emirates all arrive with squads as strong as any in recent memory. Yet for the first time since the Evenepoel era began, Soudal-Quick-Step have a plan that does not depend on their Belgian prodigy winning somewhere else. The Wolfpack is back on its cobbled home turf — and they are not hiding their intent.