The real superteam

Is Omega Pharma-Quick Step, a superteam or a team of super individuals, asks Cycling Central Editor Philip Gomes?

While all the pre-season hype focussed on BMC Racing Team, GreenEDGE and RadioShack-Nissan-Trek, Omega Pharma-Quick Step is showing that it is the real superteam of the 2012 season.

Adding Tom Boonen's victory at Gent-Wevelgem, Omega Pharma-Quick Step has won 26 races this season while the BMC Racing Team, and its collection of superstars, has posted just two winning results, with Cadel Evans's victory at the Criterium International providing the brace.

It's not that Omega Pharma-Quick Step is lacking in riders of quality, it's what it is doing with its roster that is making the cycling world sit up and take notice: working as a team to produce a string of results that will probably remain unmatched in 2012.

Now it would be true that a team like BMC has its eyes on the biggest prize in the sport, a Tour de France repeat with 2011 champion Evans, but when you have riders like Thor Hushovd and Philippe Gilbert you expect that little bit more. So far BMC's two biggest pre-season aquisitions have failed to fire for reasons that range from bad luck, illness or bad legs.

It could be argued that Omega Pharma-Quick Step has a powerful collection to match a team like BMC with riders like, Tom Boonen, Tony Martin, Levi Leipheimer, Sylvain Chavanel, Nikki Terpstra, Francesco Chicchi and the Velits brothers Peter and Martin. But most observers could say that their collection is individually, a rung below that of BMC.

But that assumption plays no part in the performances of Omega Pharma-Quick Step this season, something recognised by Boonen in his Gent-Wevelgem post-race comments.

"The team once again was super strong," Boonen said. "Steegmans in particular was a really key rider. The team did their best fight to make the front, they expended all energy they had to try and help.

"It's the team spirit we have in this moment on this team. The entire team is showing its power. Other teams are as strong as ours, but we have to say this moment we are not so bad either. We have a team where, I am not a guy who screams at my teammates, but with our team I don't have to say the same thing ten times. Everybody knows what they have to do."

That cohesion of Omega Pharma-Quick Step has been in evidence pretty much from season start, with their roll starting at the low key Tour de San Luis in Argentina.

There, Levi Leipheimer topped the general classification and Francesco Chicchi and Boonen dominated the field sprints.

Since then, Andrew Fenn, Gerald Ciolek, Peter Velits, Julien Vermote, Michael Kwiatkowski and Niki Terpstra have also picked up wins.

Terpstra's victory came a week ago at the Dwars door Vlaanderen and post race the Dutchman reflected on the strength of Omega Pharma-Quick Step, saying the team was the strongest classics squad assembled.

"I hope this victory is just the start, and that this is not my best," he told Belgian website Niewsblad.

Terpstra then went further in his comments, saying the team was 10 times stronger that Fabian Cancellara's RadioShack-Nissan-Trek team.

"I know I'm not Fabian Cancellara, but in terms of the team we are 10 times stronger than RadioShack-Nissan-Trek. We have the breadth and many assets to make the Swiss's life miserable."

Sure enough, that scenario played itself out at Gent-Wevelgem, where Cancellara went from a long way out, and Omega Pharma-Quick Step, powered by the big engine of Gert Steegmans, combined to run Cancellara down and take him out of the final equation.

Heading into the two biggest classics races of the season, the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) and Paris-Roubaix it's likely that Omega Pharma-Quick Step will emerge with both races added to its growing list of victories.

All credited to a super team of super riders.

Twitter: @Philip_Gomes