‘A shame for us, and for them’; Groupama-FDJ expected different Alpecin-Premier Tech choice in Brabantse Pijl

Sports director Stéphane Goubert had his say. “With the shortened distance, the new course favours a sprint finish. Romain had to take the initiative, and he did, so credit to him,” said the Frenchman.

In the end, one of the pre-race favourites found himself at the front with Ramses Debruyne of Alpecin-Premier Tech, after which Debruyne’s teammate Tibor Del Grosso and UAE rider Benoît Cosnefroy, among others, managed to bridge across.

“The cooperation was good, but no one wanted to do too much,” Grégoire explained. “It wasn’t an easy final with that succession of climbs, so we couldn’t afford to go all-in on the pulls. Everyone took turns, but maybe we could have ridden harder. I didn’t look back much in the last two or three kilometers, I was really focused on the win.”

“The long road with the headwind didn’t help,” Goubert added. “We thought Alpecin-Premier Tech would sacrifice Del Grosso’s teammate, but they didn’t. It’s a shame for us, and for them,” he said, raising a small question mark over the Belgian team’s tactics. In fairness, Alpecin-Premier Tech did indeed plan to use Debruyne in that role, but they were caught out slightly by the speed at which the peloton came back.

In the sprint, Grégoire still managed to ride to fourth place. “Romain was quite strong because he managed to refocus in a very short time to contest the sprint, and until ten metres from the line, he was third,” Goubert said.

“I don’t have too many regrets because I don’t think I could have managed it differently, but I’m gutted,” Grégoire said himself. “I think I raced tactically well. I made the race hard and really put myself in a position to win. But it’s not just about having the legs, you also sometimes need a bit of luck to win, and I was missing some today.”

“This fourth place is frustrating because we clearly came for the win. Overall, the riders delivered at every stage where we asked them to be attentive. There’s nothing to criticize, and we need to keep this aggressive mindset. It won’t always work, but it builds confidence to try things again. Now the three major Classics remain, and we need to keep this attitude,” Goubert concluded.