“We knew upfront that we would not be able to compete for the win today,” Sports Director Nico Verhoeven said. “Today we turned our focus to tomorrow when we want to compete for the win again with Dylan Groenewegen.” 

Geraint Thomas kept the lead in the overall classification. Before the Tour, the plan was to compete for the yellow jersey if Primoz Roglic rode a good opening time trial stage. 

“Then we could have considered taking the yellow jersey today. After the time trail, that goal faded away. His crash on Saturday is maybe still in his head. We are going to need him in the mountain stages during the rest of the Tour,” explained Verhoeven. 

“Besides that, we came through this day without any harm. Dylan seems to be in good form. That is important at this point.” 

Tom Leezer crashed hard in stage two, but finished today’s stage without serious problems. 

“I do not have much pain in my knee. Because the crash was a big impact, my body is still healing. I want to ride faster and do what I do normally, but it is like I’m riding with a limiter on my bike." 

“Normally, your body needs a day or two to recover so I take that into account. After that, I assume it will be better every day so that I can do my own thing again.”