Mike Teunissen placed 17th in the Belgian classic Binche-Chimay-Binche sprint, but that was not what the team was hoping for. Frenchman Demare (FDJ) won on the cobblestones in Binche ahead Stybar (Etixx) and Roelandts (Lotto). 

"Today was a strange race, normally it is a hard race here, but this time it was quite calm,” Teunissen said. “It seemed as if the whole peloton wanted to make it an easy day. I actually had hoped for a tough race. We tried with a number of other teams to speed up the pack, but it didn’t work.”

When an early breakaway was caught, a number of riders tried to escape.

"Maarten Wynants showed that he is still in shape by attacking in the final. The peloton did everything to bring a sprint, though,” Teunissen added. "In the sprint, it went well at first. Vanmarcke, Van Winden, Van Asbroeck and I were good together. In the last kilometre, it went wrong when I lost the wheel. Vanmarcke and Van Winden put Van Asbroeck in a good position, but he didn’t have enough left to sprint. I kept on driving and I ended up just inside the top 20 on the line. It’s not the result we came for. "

Teunissen remained a few places behind Van Asbroeck and crossed the line before Van Asbroeck.

Frans Maassen

“In cycling, the result of your best rider counts. Today, that was not good enough,” Sports Director Frans Maassen said. "We gambled on a sprint with Van Asbroeck and it looked good. It sucks that it then went wrong in the last kilometre."

The passive race was definitely not a disadvantage, according to the director. "Van Winden and Hofland were not quite fit and Sep Vanmarcke has recently become a father so it was a good thing it wasn’t a hard race. Unfortunately, Hofland could not continue the battle with stomach problems and we lost our fast man.

“The men were looking forward to this race and were fired up for a good result. Unfortunately, the result didn’t come."