Groupama-FDJ have defended their choice to tempo after the crash on the E3 Saxo Classic on Friday with “no regrets” after race winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) known as out groups for his or her unsportsmanlike ways.
Van der Poel completed the day indignant at how the French group, amongst others, had labored to take care of a spot that was created within the first 10km of racing on account of a mass crash that left the Dutchman and the principle peloton shut to a few minutes behind.
“This is one thing we might by no means do as a group,” stated Van der Poel. “It’s no truthful play to go full gasoline after a crash the place greater than half of the bunch is blocked.”
Groupama-FDJ discovered themselves with 5 riders within the 50-strong breakaway group forward of the principle peloton and did not draw back from their tactical choice to push on, seeing it contrastingly as no challenge in comparison with Van der Poel’s opinion.
“It was a hell of a day,” stated Groupama-FDJ chief Stefan Küng, who completed the day sixth, on the group’s web site.
“It by no means eased off. This massive crash after ten kilometres cut up the peloton in two. We had 5 guys in entrance, so we began to tug after some time to maintain a bonus.”
Ultimately, Alpecin-Deceuninck pulled again the benefit gained earlier than the important thing Taaienberg climb, the place Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) made the race-winning transfer with Van der Poel and Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers). Groupama additionally famous how they believed this was all the time going to occur and that their actions have been justified with no actual risk of the group staying away.
“We didn’t anticipate this situation however on condition that we had many riders within the first peloton, it wasn’t such a problem for us,” stated directeur sportif Frédéric Guesdon.
“Olivier [Le Gac] pulled first, then Visma-Lease a Bike and Q36.5 gave us a hand, however we regularly understood that it could come again collectively and that one other race would begin within the first bergs. Still, it modified the face of the race in comparison with normal.
“We don’t have anything to remorse or really feel unhealthy about.”
Despite lacking the transfer on the Taaienberg, Küng nonetheless fought for a robust outcome on the “mini Tour of Flanders”, stepping into the important thing chase group alongside the likes of Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jasper Stuyven (LIdl-Trek).
He then misplaced the dash for fourth to Casper Pedersen (Soudal-QuickStep) and Stuyven, nonetheless, by scoring his third profession high 10 on the E3 Saxo Classic, he seems to be in strong form forward of the Tour of Flanders subsequent Sunday and Paris Roubaix the week after.
“I used to be a bit far again on the backside of the Taaienberg, so I used to be simply in a position to catch the second group, however we rapidly realized that the collaboration wasn’t tremendous,” stated Küng.
“Fortunately I used to be in a position to end within the high 10 and I’m not coming house empty-handed. It’s definitely not a podium, nevertheless it’s nonetheless one thing in such a high quality race.”
