CLOSE CALLS IN KUURNE & UAE FOR BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS
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| Opening Weekend concluded on Sunday with Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, 193 kilometres over Flemish hills & cobbles, finishing on the outskirts of Kortrijk. |
| With just over 80km to go, Matej Mohorič followed a 3-man Jumbo Visma move, which eventually formed a group of 5 from which the day’s winner came. |
“We learned from yesterday and rode even better.” says the Slovenian. “Today, we really stuck together in the crosswinds, and the boys helped me out to save energy. When I saw TJV pulling, I knew they were probably trying to split the race early, and when they went full on one of the climbs, I saw it immediately and jumped straight on their wheel.”
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| From then on, there were two games of cat and mouse on the road: first was the perennial question in bike racing of whether the peloton would catch the escapees, and second: two Jumbo riders playing with their numerical advantage over the others in the break. |
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| Mohorič continues the story: |
| “There was no other option than staying together, pacing up the climbs. I would have preferred a hillier race because I was feeling super-strong on the climbs, but we had to stay together.” |
| Their gap to the bunch hovered around 1’20” as the sprinters’ teams went all out on the front of the peloton to bring them back, without success. But only with less than 20km remaining did it become clear that they would stay away. |
| As the men in yellow (Tiesj Benoot and Nathan van Hooydonck) took turns to attack off the front, Mohorič covered every move, with Tim Wellens (UAE) and Taco van der Horn (Intermarché) just passengers, leaving Matej to burn his matches in the hope that they could overtake him at the death to take a podium place. It was a plan that backfired. |
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| “I hoped to be strong enough to be able to attack and pull away in the final kilometres, but it’s not easy when you have two Jumbo Visma guys who, of course, work for each other.” |
| Eventually it was one reaction too many for Bahrain’s leader, who finished in third, holding off those who had tried to use his strength to their own advantage. Benoot soloed to victory in the end, with a single second gap to his teammate and Mohorič. |
| “I had to dig quite deep to close the gap when Van Hooydonck attacked because everyone was looking at me, and then I didn’t have the legs to also close to Tiesj, because I would have brought someone with me who would have flicked me as well. So I decided to gamble a little bit to make sure of the podium.” |
| Last year’s Milan-Sanremo winner was full of praise for the weekend’s victors (they also took victory on the previous day at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, where Andrea Pasqualon finished a more than creditable 8th), but also for his Classics teammates. |
| “Chapeau to them; they proved they are the strongest team at the moment, but we also have a strong team, so I am very confident for the rest of ‘The Classics’, and maybe we’ll win a big race again this year.” |
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| Meanwhile, in UAE, Pello Bilbao narrowly missed the GC podium by three seconds, taking fourth place, while Wout Poels managed a top-ten result finishing sixth overall. |
| Over the seven stages, Bahrain Victorious brought the opening stage to life with five riders splitting the peloton into pieces in the echelons, where Bilbao was rewarded with a minute advantage over some of his GC competitors. However, on the final stage of Jebel Hafeet, Adam Yates (UAE Emirates) attacked to take the stage win and clinch the final podium place. |
| Bilbao reflects on his fourth place: |
| “In the end, it didn’t go as we expected. I think I did a pretty big mistake in the end. I was so sure that the podium was in my hands, and with 5km to go, I was feeling strong and wasn’t worried, I felt the race was under control. |
| Obviously, Yates and Remco were riding strong, but I saw Plapp was going from the front to the back, and I tried to push him to go for the second place (overall) because we raced all week aggressively. The team deserved it, and the idea was to improve the third position. |
| I put Plapp to the limit in a moment, and he dropped from me, so I pushed hard to keep the distance with him until the part that was less steep and tried to connect with the riders in the front, but there was one point at 3.5km to go that I started to feel week and just couldn’t hold the rhythm and the heat affected me too much.” |
| (All pictures can be used for editorial and non-commercial usages only and are copyright @Sprintcycling @TeamBahrainVictorious) |
