Despite finishing last in yesterday’s team time trial at the Tour de France the Argos-Shimano remained satisfied with the fact that all nine of the team’s riders finished the stage together. The objective, explained Tom Dumoulin, was not to go all out and exceed limits but rather to conserve energies for the forthcoming Tour-challenges.

“We rode an easy and relaxed race, without going full gas. But it was a good race where we focused on riding technically well. We finished with all nine riders and everybody was satisfied. The last few months I have done a lot of TT training which paid off in the Dutch TT Championships but also in stages like this, as I can take some longer turns. As a team we gave a lot but we didn’t go over the limit. The individual TTs that are coming up are targets for me. Now we have got some nice stages for our sprinters, we are ready and looking forward to it.”

Sports Director Rudi Kemna seconded Dumoulin’s interpretation and said the team performance was quite in accordance with premeditated plans.

“We had a quite good day. We executed the plan we made, riding safely and not wasting energy or going too deep. It was also important to keep everybody together so nobody got in danger with the time limit. The technique of the riders was good, a solid tempo and not too deep, so yes, we are satisfied about our day. Tomorrow will probably be a sprinters day, we are looking forward to it. We will finalize our plan tonight, go over the course and finish again and discuss the roles and responsibilities. The riders are all in good shape and feeling good.”