Lefevere on Terpstra departure: If one goes away, another steps up
18 August 2018 05:45
Niki Terpstra was perhaps the perfect prototype of a Quick-Step Floors rider, a man whose obvious ambition never quite teetered into selfishness. He was, as manager Patrick Lefevere put it this spring, an individualist who doubled as a team player. During his eight-year tenure at Quick-Step, Terpstra, winner of Paris-Roubaix in 2014 and the Tour of Flanders this season, was rarely shy of suitors willing to make him an outright leader on another team, but he had always preferred to stay put – until now. On Thursday, Direct Energie announced that they had secured Terpstra’s services for 2019 and 2020. Terpstra’s departure from Quick-Step was perhaps less surprising than his final destination, but, as he told De Telegraaf, the contract offered by the French Continental team was simply one he could not turn down.ADVERTISEMENT Although Quick-Step’s future is guaranteed for 2019, Lefevere’s team is still searching for a title sponsor. The Belgian was unable to promise that could meet Terpstra’s salary expectations for next season, and he could understand the rider’s decision to take his talents to the Vendée. “It’s life. When there is a budget, there is a budget. If we don’t have enough money in the budget then we can’t pay him, and it’s over,” Lefevere told Cyclingnews in Riemst on Saturday. When Terpstra signed for Quick-Step from Milram at the end of 2010, he reportedly forsook the chance of a higher salary elsewhere because his mind was set on joining Tom Boonen’s cohort on the most successful Classics team of the era. As a 26-year-old rider, it was a punt worth taking. Now in the latter phase of his career, Terpstra’s decision-making was, understandably, driven more obviously by economics.
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