Team Belkin and the team leader Bauke Mollema may have lost some time during the much talked about team time trial at the Tour de France yesterday bu Sports Director Nico Verhoeven could live with the time of 26:33 which Team Belkin noted in the 25 kilometre long parcours around Nice. The Sports Director saw his riders giving their maximum and therefore the fifteenth place did not say as much, he felt.

“I didn’t get the impression that we could have gone any faster. We lost a bit of time on some of the classification riders, but that is how it goes. We got the maximum effort today. The guys also did not have the idea that we could have won any more time. I did think that Bauke made a good impression.”

According to Verhoeven the plan was simple. “It was a short parcours so we simply had to get off the start with a rapid pace and maintain that as long as possible.”

Laurens ten Dam was in accordance with his Sports Director.

“I am not the go-to guy when it comes to a flat TTT but I could get my job done today. It went fine. We worked well together as a team. There was not much more to gain.”

Team leader Bauke Mollema was thrilled about losing precious seconds but was satisfied with the outcome nonetheless.

“Nothing crazy happened along the way. We did not leave any gaps and the turns were smooth. I did, in fact, loose some time and I know that every second counts but we’ll just have to see about that in Paris. We got the maximum result today and for now we have to be satisfied.”