“It would have been nice if we had won. Losing seven seconds and becoming second is a pity”, said Jos van Emden, who won the team time trial in the UAE Tour with Team Jumbo-Visma last month. “Especially if you are fastest for a long time and only the last team proves to be faster. The tension was intense. We rode a very good team time trial nevertheless. We were very quick and we were positive about the possibility to win. Unfortunately, one team was faster. It also indicates that we are doing well this year and that we have made considerable progress in this discipline. We are now gaining the benefits. For now, it is a pity, but we need to flip a switch and get back into focus, because we have come here to ride a good classification with Roglic. We have won time on most competitors. So in that respect it was a great day.”

Sports director Addy Engels concurred with Van Emden. “Finishing second at seven seconds is a bit disappointing, but the boys did a very good team time trial. The margin with Mitchelton-Scott is very small and we’ve taken quite some time on the other teams. We divided our forces very well in the time trial and we knew that in the second part of the race we could and had to make the difference. And that’s what we did. Unfortunately, one team was a bit faster.”