Interview | Jumbo-Visma not drawing conclusions yet after Kelderman's time loss: "Time trial is simply fair"

The day before the Tour of Switzerland, Wilco Kelderman told this media outlet that he felt good on his time trial bike. However, on the first day of the WorldTour race, he had to swallow a bitter pill: finishing 56th, 49 seconds behind the winner - probably not what he expected.

The general classification contender himself chose not to comment after the race ("I don't really have anything to say"), but team director Marc Reef spoke to IDLProCycling.com on behalf of Jumbo-Visma: "From here on out, it can only get better," he concluded. "Wilco gave it his all, and then a time trial is simply fair."

"We just came from altitude and trained well there. The first effort is always tough, as we can see now," said the director, who doesn't believe that the difficult conditions at altitude played a role in the time trial. "I don't think that had any influence. There were more riders at altitude, and the conditions were suboptimal everywhere. We shouldn't attribute too much importance to these differences. Of course, it would be better if it were the other way around, but Wilco gave it his all and rode a good time trial."

"Starting from stage three, we have three challenging mountain stages where we're going to see a lot of differences. We will take it day by day and see how things develop," Reef cautiously looks ahead to the tough days ahead in Switzerland.

Jumbo-Visma only wants to take stock after two mountain stages

When we mention to the team director that Kelderman didn't want to speak to us immediately after his time trial and enquire if it could be because he was utterly disappointed, Reef responds as follows: "I don't think Wilco is disappointed. He rode the time trial, gave it his all, but I think we can only assess the situation after two mountain stages. Only then, based on how things are at that point and how we feel about it, can we draw conclusions. Wilco is also still preparing for what's coming in July," referring to the Tour de France.

All in all, the man who also rode the Giro on behalf of the Dutch team looks to the upcoming days with confidence. "Such a time trial is very specialized work, it's an effort of only fourteen minutes. That's quite different from riding uphill for a long time. It's a whole different ball game. Riding at fifty kilometers per hour the whole time is doable, but making that difference is difficult. And then you see that the gaps can really widen and add up."

Tom van der Salm (Twitter: @TomvanderSalm)