How Tudor was still the unluckiest team of the weekend despite two riders on the podium

That Swiss team Tudor stood on the podium in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne with both Matteo Trentin and Luca Mozzato is quite rare in a major classic. But the story gets even more remarkable when you consider how the team made it through the entire weekend. Belgian sports director Bart Leysen and Matteo Trentin share the story for our camera.

Former European champion Trentin expressed it in his usual sharp way: "On Saturday, after Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, I got on the team bus and was told I was the only one from the team who hadn’t hit the ground. That is super tough, of course. Everyone except me saw a doctor that evening or had to go to the hospital. What are you supposed to do at a moment like that?"

Harsh verdict
The verdict was severe. The brand-new team leader, time trial specialist Stefan Küng, broke his femur. The entire world could watch from the front row as Rick Pluimers lost some teeth in a crash on the Molenberg. Lithuanian Aivaras Mikutis suffered a deep cut inside his palm, and before the Muur van Geraardsbergen, both Luca Mozzato and Marco Haller also went down.

The latter felt far from well the next day. Pluimers and Mikutis were even too badly hurt to start. "You obviously want to forget a day like that as soon as possible," says Leysen. "I haven’t experienced something like this very often. There’s always a lot of crashes during the Opening Weekend, but this was very extreme. It was incredibly tense. Riders who weren’t yet at 100 percent were trying to move up at the last second or jump into a gap. Then you’re really on the limit."

The damage was greatest for Küng. "He will undergo surgery on Monday. We are losing him, and that is super hard. It won’t be possible to get him back in shape. That immediately reduces our biggest chances in Paris-Roubaix and Dwars door Vlaanderen, two races that suit him perfectly. And who knows who else might join the list in the coming weeks. Luckily, Fabian Lienhard and Mayrhoffer will return from injury in time for the top races, otherwise our core lineup would look really weak."

Revenge
After Omloop, the team was in a bad place, but Leysen managed to turn things completely around. "Crashing can happen and it’s not the end of the world. That’s what I told the riders, and we tried to patch everyone up. We started with only five guys, and not everyone was in top shape in Kuurne, but luckily they were there, and Mozzato and Trentin were still good enough to be involved. We kept a low profile as much as possible since everyone was canceling each other out, and we gambled on a sprint."

"That worked out well, but you always need some luck. I’m very happy for the team that they managed this," says Leysen. Trentin adds: "We both felt tired, so Luca and I said to each other: we work for each other, we make space, and in the last kilometers, we go our own way. We could have done a lead-out for each other too, but looking back, you can clearly see Brennan won the sprint."

A consolation prize for Fabian Cancellara’s troops? Leysen speaks of mixed feelings. "We are satisfied with the result, but the injuries, especially Stefan’s, will stick the longest." According to Trentin, it mainly proves their resilience: "At least we got some revenge. We have to turn our bad luck around now; there’s no other option. We straightened things out, and that gives great morale."