“This is a setback of course,” sports director, Erik Dekker said. “We weren’t able to sprint again because of a crash with two of our riders. When it doesn’t work out, that’s a big disappointment.”

The young Belgian was disappointed about his crash. “I crashed again,” he said. “I have to put myself back together now. “I was in the slipstream of Sep Vanmarcke. We were well placed not too far behind. Everyone came to the left, suddenly. I was pushed at that moment and crashed over the back wheel of the rider in front of me. Unfortunately, Jos van Emden also crashed because of that.”

Echelons
The stage between Nevada City and Lodi was one with a lot of wind. Team LottoNL-Jumbo was hoping to profit from the circumstances to force some echelons, but it was headwind the whole day. “We wanted to force echelons early in the stage,” Dekker added. “The wind wasn’t favourable for that. But the good news of the day is that Robert Gesink is feeling good.”

Mountain stage
That is important for the third stage in the USA. Tuesday will be the first mountain stage of the race with a hors category climb at almost fifty kilometres from the finish. “First of all, we have to make sure that Robert won’t face any problems,” Dekker said. “When we succeed, we can try to force something on the last small climb of the day.”