For years, the individual time trial has been part of the six-day stage race in the Basque Country. The 16.5-kilometre time trial included one climb with the Arzubiaga (0.9km at 2.4%) and featured a flat final stretch towards the finish line. Campenaerts had set the race against the clock as his goal in the Basque Country.

After a rock-solid start, the Belgian rode a somewhat weaker second part towards the finish in Baskonia-Alavés. In the end, Campenaerts clocked by far the best time of the yellow-black brigade, but with seventh place in the day's results he could not make a bid for the victory. The time trial was won by Maximilian Schachmann. 

“Looking back, I think my start was a bit too optimistic”, Campenaerts reflects honestly on his time trial. “It was a course with some tricky sections. Of course a fast start is necessary here to get a good result, but because of that I lost some power in the second part and could not accelerate as much I wanted. It was not my best time trial of my career, but certainly not the worst either.”

The 33-year-old rider predicts a week full of opportunities for Team Visma | Lease a Bike. “Tomorrow seems to be a good chance for Axel Zingle. In addition, Ben Tulett is in good shape with the victory of the Coppi e Bartali two weeks ago and Sepp Kuss is always strong in the mountains. I would have liked to win the opening time trial here, but let's first state that the goals of team are the most important from now on. We hope to be able to compete for the stage victories in the coming days”, Campenaerts concludes.