Maximum effort in stage 4

Nico Verhoeven could live with the time of 26:33 which Team Belkin noted in the 25 kilometre long parcours around Nice. The Sports Director saw his riders giving their maximum and therefore the fifteenth place did not say as much.

“I didn’t get the impression that we could have gone any faster. We lost a bit of time on some of the classification riders, but that is how it goes. We got the maximum effort today. The guys also did not have the idea that we could have won any more time. I did think that Bauke made a good impression.”

Simple plan
According to Verhoeven the plan was simple. “It was a short parcours so we simply had to get off the start with a rapid pace and maintain that as long as possible.”

Tour de France: Quotes following stage 4

Lars Boom
“It went well. We rode hard. I had the feeling that we did not waste any time. I was one of the engines of the team and I think I did what was expected of me.”

Laurens ten Dam
“I am not the go-to guy when it comes to a flat TTT but I could get my job done today. It went fine. We worked well together as a team. There was not much more to gain.”

Robert Gesink
“I’m very happy with my performance. I felt real strong and I think that with my work I was valuable for the team.”

Tom Leezer
“I think it may be our fastest TTT ever. We left nothing out there. We can take satisfaction in that.”

Bauke Mollema
“Nothing crazy happened along the way. We did not leave any gaps and the turns were smooth. I did, in fact, loose some time and I know that every second counts but we’ll just have to see about that in Paris. We got the maximum result today and for now, we have to be satisfied.”

Lars Petter Nordhaug
“As a team we gave it our all and that is always good. Time trialing is not my strongest suit but I think the work I put in was very solid.”

Bram Tankink
“We gave it our all and better than the 15th place was not in the offing. The classification suffered a bit and we can’t be too happy about that but 37 seconds can be overcome.”

Maarten Wynants
“The pace was very hard today and that was very painful. We gave it our all and did not make any mistakes. We’ll have to be satisfied.”

Like PEZ? Why not subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive updates and reminders on what's cool in road cycling?