After all of the discuss Visma-Lease a Bike’s ‘tremendous staff’ heading into the Classics, it was Lidl-Trek that had been one of the best outfit at E3 Saxo Basic, proudly owning pole place heading into the essential Taaienberg and touchdown 4 riders within the prime 11 finishers.
They couldn’t fairly overcome the ability 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 ultimate 5 kilometres and outsprinting him to the road in Harelbeke.
A consequence to not be sniffed at with the World Champion “above everybody else” in keeping with Stuyven and easily “on one other stage” 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 stage. That is the fact, and it was by no means our race,” stated Rast.
“When you have a look at the previous, we had been by no means performing right here tremendous effectively, not less than for a very long time, we’re actually, actually pleased with the second place of Jasper [Styuven].”
Stuyven additionally stated that he was happy with what he felt was a robust efficiency. “In fact, I’m very glad. I believe it is a very good consequence. I believe, as a staff, we rode an excellent robust race. We had been there, we had been current. In fact, you may have Mathieu who was above everybody else at present however ending second on the rostrum may be very satisfying.”
This was the primary time Lidl-Trek had been within the prime 10 at E3 since 2018, when it was Stuyven once more who was their prime performer. In the present day, his ways had 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 kind returning to the highest stage after he labored brilliantly for Mads Pedersen at Milan-San Remo and completed within the prime 10 of each races at Opening Weekend.
“It is not solely his form, however his morale is on prime. 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 nasty second however this could occur, he’s not a robotic,” Rast stated.
“We consider in him and at present I’m actually glad 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 at present was virtually the utmost.”
There was actually little else the American staff might’ve accomplished within the deciding ultimate 80km of racing in Belgium as they discovered good formation to launch assaults with Alex Kirsch and Toms Skujiņš additionally on prime kind 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 12 months’s Tour, Lidl-Trek have large ambitions to construct themselves as much as the identical ‘tremendous staff’ realms alongside Visma-Lease a Bike and UAE Group Emirates. Rast was delighted with how they rode collectively as a staff regardless of not having the ability to beat Van der Poel.
“Not solely this [Stuyven] but in addition how the remainder of the staff was driving: everyone did their work, everyone did their lead-out to probably the most well-known factors,” Rast stated. “We had been all the time within the sport, and that’s most vital for me.”
So it was an total satisfying day with second, eighth, tenth and eleventh all secured for the quartet that characterised a lot of the closing part of racing. They may now head into Gent-Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders with nice confidence and two very robust choices.
Requested if he was happy, Rast assured “Actually, Sure. This isn’t our race and particularly everyone appears to be like at Mads usually and this isn’t his favorite race. I believe he likes way more Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem and Roubaix – these are the races the place I believe he has a greater likelihood.
“I believe now now we have Jasper, who’s implausible, and Mads prefers the opposite races – he was struggling lots in E3, however he might be good with two riders.”
The Dane said firstly of the season {that a} Monument was once more his largest objective 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, whenever you go head-to-head with Mathieu, it’s troublesome, and Wout may also step up. I believe it’s two a bit of bit in entrance and plenty 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 blokes to look at, after which our guys are usually not far behind, particularly Mads and Jasper.”
