After all of the speak about Visma-Lease a Bike’s ‘tremendous crew’ heading into the Classics, it was Lidl-Trek that have been the most effective outfit at E3 Saxo Basic, proudly owning pole place heading into the essential Taaienberg and touchdown 4 riders within the high 11 finishers.
They couldn’t fairly overcome the facility of Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) because the Dutchman surged away on the Paterberg to take victory solo. However Jasper Stuyven (Lidl-Trek) took an excellent second forward of Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) after bridging to his compatriot within the last 5 kilometres and outsprinting him to the road in Harelbeke.
A end result to not be sniffed at with the World Champion “above everybody else” based on Stuyven and easily “on one other degree” within the phrases of sports activities director Grégory Rast as he spoke to Het Nieuwsblad and Cyclingnews after the end.
“I’m not upset right here. Mathieu was racing on one other degree. That is the truth, and it was by no means our race,” mentioned Rast.
“When you have a look at the previous, we have been by no means performing right here tremendous nicely, a minimum of for a very long time, we’re actually, actually pleased with the second place of Jasper [Styuven].”
Stuyven additionally mentioned that he was happy with what he felt was a robust efficiency. “In fact, I’m very comfortable. I believe it is a very good end result. I believe, as a crew, we rode an excellent sturdy race. We have been there, we have been current. In fact, you will have Mathieu who was above everybody else immediately however ending second on the rostrum could be very satisfying.”
This was the primary time Lidl-Trek had been within the high 10 at E3 since 2018, when it was Stuyven once more who was their high performer. At this time, his techniques have been fairly spot-on, getting away from the faltering five-man group, which contained Van Aert’s teammate Matteo Jorgenson, to make sure he might catch Van Aert and overhaul him in time.
It was simply one other instance of the 31-year-old Belgian’s type returning to the highest degree after he labored brilliantly for Mads Pedersen at Milan-San Remo and completed within the high 10 of each races at Opening Weekend.
“It isn’t solely his form, however his morale is on high. He confirmed he was there in Milan-San Remo and OK, he was not there in Opening Weekend – he missed the massive break up and after he had a foul second however this could occur, he’s not a robotic,” Rast mentioned.
“We imagine in him and immediately I’m actually comfortable for him, even for a second place. We need to win and we need to attempt to win however the way in which we raced immediately was nearly the utmost.”
There was actually little else the American crew might’ve performed within the deciding last 80km of racing in Belgium as they discovered good formation to launch assaults with Alex Kirsch and Toms Skujiņš additionally on high type on the entrance of the prepare earlier than Pedersen and Stuyven at totally different factors tried to get away solo.
With the grocery store approaching board as a brand new title sponsor finally yr’s Tour, Lidl-Trek have huge ambitions to construct themselves as much as the identical ‘tremendous crew’ realms alongside Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Staff Emirates. Rast was delighted with how they rode collectively as a crew regardless of not with the ability to beat Van der Poel.
“Not solely this [Stuyven] but additionally how the remainder of the crew was driving: all people did their work, all people did their lead-out to probably the most well-known factors,” Rast mentioned. “We have been all the time within the recreation, and that’s most essential for me.”
So it was an general satisfying day with second, eighth, tenth and eleventh all secured for the quartet that characterised a lot of the closing part of racing. They are going to now head into Gent-Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders with nice confidence and two very sturdy choices.
Requested if he was glad, Rast assured “Actually, Sure. This isn’t our race and particularly all people seems at Mads usually and this isn’t his favorite race. I believe he likes rather more Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem and Roubaix – these are the races the place I believe he has a greater probability.
“I believe now we’ve got Jasper, who’s incredible, and Mads prefers the opposite races – he was struggling rather a lot in E3, however he will probably be good with two riders.”
The Dane acknowledged at first of the season {that a} Monument was once more his largest purpose for the upcoming season having already confirmed himself as a former World Champion and in any respect three Grand Excursions. However Rast was nonetheless reasonable with expectations going in opposition to the present rainbow jersey holder, Van der Poel.
“In fact, if you go head-to-head with Mathieu, it’s troublesome, and Wout may even step up. I believe it’s two somewhat bit in entrance and lots of behind – I believe the opposite groups additionally have to do one thing,” Rast laughed.
“I believe all of the groups might [take advantage] in the event that they watched one another. I believe they’re the fellows to observe, after which our guys aren’t far behind, particularly Mads and Jasper.”
Supply hyperlink
