Omega Pharma-Quick Step’s winning streak at the World Team Time Trial Championships came to an end when the Belgian team could only manage third in the battle on the Spanish streets of Ponferrada. Admitting that the team had lost a few key riders that could have made a difference, sports and development manager Rolf Aldag refuses to use the missing firepower as an excuse.

Going into the World Team Time Trial Championships, Omega Pharma-Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevere told CyclingQuotes that his team could only lose. Being the two-time defending champion, the outside world would always describe anything else than another gold medal as a failure.

If he is right, Lefevere will wake up to critical headlines after the Belgian team could only manage third in the third edition of the relatively new event. Having started the race fast, the team faded in the end and with a deficit of 36 seconds to winners BMC, they were not even close to a third victory.

Nonetheless, sports and development manager Rolf Aldag refuses to describe the result as a failure.

“It’s still a podium,” he told CyclingQuotes after the race. “We are happy that the guys could still finish on the podium. It’s a medal at the World Championships so it is still something special. All of them would have liked to win but it wasn’t possible. We had a pretty stable team and they managed to stay together with 6 guys until with 6km to go.

“They tried everything. They started really fast, they started really motivated but they just couldn’t bring it home. If we had finished fourth and not had a medal, I would have been disappointed. If he had missed the podium at the World Championships, it would have been harder to accept.”

Unlike many other teams, the team had six riders until very late in the race. The first rider to get dropped was Michal Kwiatkowski who virtually came to a standstill with 6-7km to go.

“He did a very hard pull and then he just swung off,” Aldag said. “That’s just the right thing to do. It is not about finishing with 6, it is about going as fast as possible. He had done his job before and then it is absolutely fine. That’s okay.

“We will analyze it. We will look at our data and see how the situation was, if we dropped power, if BMC did a very strong finale, if the wind played a role. We will all analyze it and learn for next year.”

Compared to last year, Omega Pharma-Quick Step missed three key riders as Sylvain Chavanel, Kristof Vandewalle  and Peter Velits have all left the team, the latter being part of the winning team for the third year in a row. Furthermore, they had bad luck in the build-up as Rigoberto Uran and Zdenek Stybar were both unavailable due to illness and injury respectively but Aldag refuses to use the lack of manpower as an excuse.

“If you have plenty of outstanding riders, it is relatively easy but we cannot blame the guys who are here,” he said. “They have nothing to do with it. Of course we would have loved to have Uran at the start. A good Uran can make a difference. But it is how it is. We don’t know if it was perfect for the other teams. Was it the best team for BMC or did they replace anybody? Was it the best team for Orica or did they replace anybody? Our guys got the best out of it.”

Many had expected the race to come down to another battle between Orica-GreenEDGE and Omega Pharma-Quick Step. In the end, they were both beaten by BMC who was mostly seen as an outsider.

“At the end of the day, we just see who have been doing their homework,” Aldag said. “Orica spends a lot of resources on this event. BMC have done so for three years in a row. They were second two years ago by less than 3 seconds. They play a role and they are there. It’s basically Sky, Orica, BMC and us who play that game, love it and are committed to it. You can see that those guys will always be in front.”

Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Orica-GreenEDGE are still the only teams who have finished on the podium in all three editions of the event.