Jurgen Roelandts had big expectations for today's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad but came away with a disappointing 13th place. Having been isolated in the finale, both Roelandts and team manager Marc Sergeant regretted the collective performance of the team.
With last year's third place in the Tour of Flanders, Jurgen Roelandts has shown that he is one of the greatest specialists for the cobbled classics and he had expressed confidence ahead of today's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. However, things didn't go according to plan for the Belgian who had to settle for 13th.
When the race went into its finale, Roelandts was left on his own while teams like Sky, BMC, Belkin, and Omega Pharma-Quick Step had several cards to play. In the aggressive finale where several attacks were launched, things got complicated for Roelandts who had to pick the right moves to follow and in the end he missed the one that ended up giving Ian Stannard (Sky) the win.
Afterwards, Roelandts regretted the lack of teammates in the finale.
"The moment that Boasson Hagen, Terpstra and Vanmarcke responded to the attack of Stannard and Van Avermaet I hesitated," he said. "I should have gone with them. Sep Vanmarcke obviously was the strongest man in the race, he was impressive. On the Paddestraat and Lippenhovestraat I had a good feeling and thought everything was still possible. It was a race in which the circumstances were changing all the time and that's why it was hard to assess the situation.
"I was indeed alone in the final. It would have been better if I had the support of teammates in the section of the Paddestraat and Lippenhovestraat so I could have done less efforts myself. I'm disappointed about the result, I had hoped to perform better. It didn't turn out as I expected."
Team manager Marc Sergeant shared the disappointment and was now looking ahead to tomorrow's Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
"The team hasn't lived up to the expectations," he said. "The goal was to finish high with Jürgen Roelandts. We should have been stronger collectively in the final. We're disappointed. Tomorrow we have to show we can perform as a team. In Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne André Greipel is our leader. Today was an off-day. The team has had a good preparation. In the run-up we did everything to be ready, but we didn't perform as we wanted. Tomorrow is a new opportunity."
You can read our preview of tomorrow's Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne here.
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