Visma | Lease a Bike bows to Van der Poel but sees plenty of positives

Visma | Lease a Bike had to concede defeat to Mathieu van der Poel on Saturday, but team leader Maarten Wynants was cheerful in front of the WielerFlits camera. The Belgian ex-pro sees plenty of positive signs looking ahead to the upcoming spring classics.

"Actually, we hadn’t pushed too hard yet. We managed to ride through smoothly and were almost completely spared from bad luck. We were basically where we needed to be. It looked very promising." However, the first setback came on the cobbles of the Molenberg. Team leader Christophe Laporte was held up by Rick Pluimers’ crash.

"That’s racing. Fortunately, Christophe didn’t crash, but he completely lost his momentum for a moment. Then it’s about damage control. He still got the most out of it," said Wynants. "I believe Mathieu also had to put a foot down, but he has the skills to correct that very quickly. If you ask a hundred other riders, no one can do that. He has the skills, and that’s impressive. Christophe was really on foot, and then it’s hard to get yourself going again."

Moment of doubt
Most teams were not with the Van der Poel group after the Molenberg, yet the gap extended to over a minute. How did that happen? "It went very fast because the organization still had to get going. A minute of just watching each other is deadly," Wynants explains. "We had indicated that they needed to keep the pace high, but our riders still had to move up first."

Per (Per Strand Hagenes, ed.) had already tried to close the gap and needed to catch his breath for a moment. Then there were a few minutes of doubt, but Van der Poel and Vermeersch did not hesitate. I do think we did everything we could to limit the damage. It’s hard for us to ride upfront with Laporte already in front. The guys who were there took turns pulling for Matthew Brennan and Christophe."

"That’s what we have to build on"
"We might have hoped that Florian Vermeersch (who was with the race lead, ed.) would at some point ease off, to allow Tim Wellens back into the race. Then you’re just hoping for what others do. You’re no longer a driving factor yourself."

However, Wynants still sees plenty to take confidence from for the upcoming classics. "Last year, we struggled with positioning, but today that went very well. That’s something to build on. You never know what Christophe could have achieved without that crash. We got the maximum out of it."