Classics talents and the grand tours

To lovers of the classics, one of the most frustrating aspect of being a fan is that we have to watch promising classics talents waste their potential by foregoing the classics in pursuit of General Classification (GC) glory in the grand tours. Countless riders have fallen into this pitfall, sacrificing their huge classics potential yet not quite succeeding in the grand tours.

With specialization become both more prevalent and deeper in recent years, we consider some active riders of today.

Patrick Lefevere and the Yellow Jersey: Unconsummated Lust

As the boss of OmegaPharma-QuickStep, and with his history in MG-GB, Mapei, and Domo-Farm Frites, it can be argued that Patrick Lefevere is one of the most successful among modern cycling managers. His riders have won every classic at least once, and their domination of the spring classics is so complete that longtime fans rue that too much time has past since his team's last 1-2-3 win in Paris-Roubaix. Add to this multiple World Cup wins, World Championships, and stage wins / jersey wins in the grand tours.

Patrick Lefevere, from Wikipedia Commons.

One glaring omission is that Patrick Lefevere has never won the general classification (GC) of the Tour de France (TdF). In this article we recall his various attempts to buy, grow, cajole GC champions for the TdF.