Team LottoNL-Jumbo has finished 13th at the World Championship Team Time Trial in Innsbruck. The young team of sports-directors Jan Boven and Mathieu Heijboer finished at  almost three and a half minutes from winner QuickStep-Floors. 

“It was a difficult team time trial for us, but the boys have put up a good fight”, sports director Jan Boven said. “We started well and until the first checkpoint we were doing fine. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to keep that pace. On the climb, we blew ourselves up a bit and lost too much time there.”

Performance manager Mathieu Heijboer agrees with Boven, but nevertheless noticed some positive things which will be beneficial for future races. “Let's be honest: we can’t possibly be satisfied with this thirteenth place. But this young team without real climbers learned a lot today and this week they gained a lot of experience. That’s why we were here with this group. If you look at the technique and automatism of riding a team time trial, things went well, but we simply didn’t have the speed and the experience. We lost too much time on the climb. The last twenty kilometres we did with only four guys. With a view towards the future, we learned a lot. Although we had hoped for a better position today, the result was subordinate to the learning process.”