Rockets point the finger at motorbikes after missed opportunity: ‘Hard to believe’

Incredible but true: the flattest stage of the Giro d’Italia turned into one for the breakaway riders. The sprint teams badly misjudged the attackers, and so once again there was no stage win for Dylan Groenewegen and the Unibet Rose Rockets. They fought for everything they were worth — but it was just not enough. And that has left the team harbouring a few suspicions.

Four leaders rolled into Milan with a two-minute advantage, still 60 kilometres from the finish. Too little to survive, surely? No — they held on against all the odds. Every sprint team had to burn through their lead-out men early, and even that wasn’t enough. It seems impossible. “Impossible it wasn’t, because they did it,” Groenewegen said in his flash interview. He finished sixth, just behind Paul Magnier.

During the race, a motorbike was at times spotted running a little too close to the four leaders — of whom Fredrik Dversnes Lavik proved the strongest. “I don’t know. I wasn’t in the break, of course — I can only speak from the peloton’s perspective,” the Amsterdam-born rider said, staying diplomatically neutral. “We gave absolutely everything. We couldn’t really have gone any harder. We used everyone we had, and in the end we just fell short.”

It was the Unibet Rose Rockets who did the lion’s share of the work at the front early on. Other teams only chipped in once the situation became critical. “In the end you could say: we should have put more riders up front. But that’s easy to judge now. You can say every team that was in contention should have ridden harder. But that’s racing — it comes with the territory.”

The twisting circuit also worked in the attackers’ favour. “On a circuit like that, you always know it’s going to be difficult. We stuck to the plan and tried to close it down. To do that, we had to use everyone — which wasn’t the original plan. But we raced and we fought for everything we had. That was the maximum for today.”

Groenewegen is certainly disappointed. “I come here to win, so this is a bitter one. We’ve been building towards this for several days now. When it doesn’t come off, you always feel it. On the other hand, we rode really strongly — everyone gave everything they had. If that was the limit, I have to be satisfied with it. I enjoyed the crowd, a beautiful circuit, a great atmosphere.”

There is one more genuine sprint opportunity left: in Rome on the very final day. Groenewegen now has to set his sights firmly on that Sunday. “Maybe we won’t let a breakaway go that day,” he laughed through gritted teeth. “For now it’s about surviving — but also about looking forward to the next one.”

Elmar Reinders also had to go to the front earlier than planned. Initially he too couldn’t quite explain why the leaders had managed to hold on. “It’s hard to say, because I wasn’t at the front. But we burned through all our riders, so we couldn’t get back. I tried in the final kilometre and a half, but I didn’t have a chance.”

The frustration was visible in Groenewegen’s lead-out man, however. “Everyone has an explanation, but maybe not one meant for TV,” he said — before voicing his suspicions after all. And what were those suspicions? “That there was a very good motorbike up there.”[domestiquecycling]

It really was an unlikely David versus Goliath story. “We burned through thirty riders and still couldn’t do it. It’s hard to believe.” A lack of help wasn’t the issue. “Everyone burned through their entire lead-out. Everyone helped.” And so the Rockets are left empty-handed. “We were expecting a sprint, and to be right in the fight for the win.”