Yesterday Team Sky criticized teams like Giant-Shimano who had not helped organize a chase behind the 10-rider group in the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. With Nikias Arndt crashing out of the group, however, the Dutch team insist that it was not up to them to do the wotk

In much different circumstances to the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Team Giant-Shimano struggled to make an impact at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne yesterday. The race set out under sunny conditions, a stark contrast to the wet and windy climate of yesterday’s racing.

Four riders pulled clear early on to get things going and started to build up a lead, but the bunch weren’t hanging around and with around 80km to go the race split into three distinct groups. 10 riders formed at the front of the race and they were never to be seen by the bunch again.

What was left of the peloton, around 45 riders, sat at around a minute behind the leaders but couldn’t close the gap. In this group was Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, Roy Curvers, Bert De Backer and Nikias Arndt. Arndt came unstuck and hit the deck before retiring from the race but was ok with no serious injuries to report.

At the front of the race it came down to a sprint finish for the front 10, with Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma – Quickstep) taking his third win in this race. Behind, Van Rensburg was the first across the line for Team Giant-Shimano in 17th place.

“The goal was to be alert in the first part of the race, not to take the initiative or be in break but be alert to the wind and to make sure we were there together when things were happening,” said coach Marc Reef after the race. “We expected it to kick off on the Kruisberg and we aimed to be there at the front together at this point.

“I think the best 10 guys in race were ahead. Behind, the chase wasn’t really up to us as there were so many other teams that could do something at the end. We did start riding at the end to help but it was too late.

“Bert, Roy and Reinardt showed again that they are going well but it’s not the result we were hoping for. We were looking to set up Nikias at the end but he unfortunately crashed out. Overall its good to see that the guys are in good shape for the coming classics.”

Koen De Kort said: “Yesterday my shape was pretty good but it was a hard race so I wasn’t sure what my shape would be like here today. I’m not at 100% yet but I think that I am where I want to be.

“It was a cold hard day yesterday and I didn’t fully recover, and after I got caught up behind a crash I never really got back into the race. I still finished the race to get my training in and hopefully this weekend will help me build for the next races.”

Luka Mezgec said: “My day was quite good today as I was coming back from a virus last week. The feelings were good, a big improvement from how I was in Andalucia, so now I’m just looking forward to the next races.”