Lotto Belisol signed Maxime Monfort as their leader for the Vuelta a Espana and Giro d'Italia but the Belgian could only manage 16th in the Spanish grand tour. He admits that the results corresponds to his level in what was otherwise a successful race for the Belgian team.

The Vuelta finished yesterday with a time trial in Santiago de Compostela. Lotto Belisol returns home with one victory, the stage win of Adam Hansen last Friday. In GC Maxime Monfort is sixteenth. Sports director Mario Aerts and Monfort look back on the past three weeks.
 

“When you take the circumstances into account I’m in my place," Monfort said. "Until yesterday’s stage I thought about top fifteen, that was the goal at the start. I might not have been on my best here, but I performed on a constant level. Of course you want more, but when you look at the riders here I can be satisfied with my sixteenth place.

"The podium of this Vuelta is logic. The first five in GC were outstanding. I tried to get in a break, but it couldn’t be a small one. The race was also quite closed, with very few attacks that made it to the end. In the mountains I always followed my own rhythm. I’m motivated to work on some details that can improve this winter.”

“We came to this Vuelta with two goals: win a stage and get in the top fifteen of GC with Maxime Monfort," Aerts said. "We had our stage win in the end, a magnificent victory of Adam. Maxime just fell out of top fifteen, he’s sixteenth in GC. He gave everything he had. In the mountains he always followed his own rhythm, so he could always catch some riders who got dropped.
 
“Our riders were part of a breakaway on several occasions, but it was rare that a break made it to the end. Pim Ligthart showed himself a few times as part of a long breakaway and those three times he got the combativity award. Bart de Clercq and Adam Hansen were once together in a break that battled for the stage win. Bart became sixth.

"This was the first Grand Tour for Vegard Breen, that went very well. He did lots of work for among other Maxime and he joined a breakaway one time.
 
“Adam Hansen rode well here from the start. In the first stages he had also tried to win a stage by jumping away at the end. He often tried to get in a break. Apart from that time with Bart he got in another one and finished eighth.

"Fantastic that he completed his tenth consecutive Grand Tour. I finished the three Grand Tours in one year in 2007. That’s already a strong performance, Adam does it three years in a row. That shouldn’t be underestimated. You have to be spared from bad luck, but also have the condition to finish. He’s always working for the team and doesn’t ride anonymously.”