Victor Campenaerts and Primoz Roglic finished fifth and sixth in the prologue time trial of the Tour de Romandie. With talented young rider Koen Bouwman finishing eleven, the LottoNL-Jumbo team showed it’s strength in depth and its talent for time trials. The prologue was over a distance of 4.8 kilometres and was won by the Italian Fabio Felline. On the wet and so technical course in Aigle, Campenaerts finished just eight seconds slower and Roglic was nine seconds down.

"I was especially pleased with how I handled the corners," said Campenaerts after his ride. "It was a technical course and I was think I rode it well. I lost some time in the second part and especially on the last turn but it was important not to crash.”

"When I got to the finish I was a second slower than the best time at that moment. I'm glad that Felline beat me by eight seconds, at least I know that I didn’t lose it in some of the corners."

Team LottoNL-Jumbo's Belgian rider is now looking forward to next Sunday’s 18-kilometre time trial around Lausanne.

"A long time trial is more my thing and therefore I’ll put everything on the last time trial. We’ll do everything we can to help Primoz in the next few days."

Primoz Roglic

Primoz Roglic also highlighted the technical difficulties of the prologue.

"It was a difficult stage because of the rain. Of course you do everything you can to try to win but I avoided taking any huge risks on the last technical turn. I'm not really afraid of the rain but it's makes time trailing a far bigger challenge."

Roglic is now ready to go for the GC. "We have a strong team and we are going to do our best every day."

Grischa Niermann

Sports Director Grischa Niermann was happy to see the riders perform well. With three men at the first eleven in the coverall classification, LottoNL-Jumbo is second in the team classification, confirming that the team is one of the best in the world against the clock.

"Of course, we would have liked to have been closer to victory but Victor, Primoz and Koen all finished in the top first eleven. The whole team rode a good time trial."

Niermann also talked about the wet conditions.

"It was a technical course and the rain meant the conditions were pretty extreme. I’m happy no one crashed. We would rather have won, but the most important thing is that Primoz gained some time, even a lot of time, on some of his overall rivals.”

Wednesday’s first road stage includes some serious climbing.

"We’ll see how the weather is in the morning, it’s a mountain finish and snow is predicted. The climb is 14 kilometres long and the opening four kilometres are really tough. We think the climb will definitely suit Primoz."