Visma | Lease a Bike clarifies missed podium finish in Gent-Wevelgem and shares update on Tratnik

Gent-Wevelgem ultimately turned into an incredible spectacle, in which Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) proved themselves to be by far the strongest. It was the Dane who came out on top in a two-man sprint, followed by the peloton sprint for third place being won by Jordi Meeus (BORA-hansgrohe). Shadow favorite Olav Kooij had to settle for seventh place, after a less than perfect day for Visma | Lease a Bike.

"We hoped to go for the podium with Olav in the finale. However, the legs were at their limit, so we have to live with this result," team director Maarten Wynants told the cycling press afterward. "The guys fought. The two best were leading, and we just fell short of third place."

Wynants' words are clearly permeated with realism, shortly after a race during which Jan Tratnik fell early on and was forced to abandon. Fortunately, the damage seems to be minor for the Slovenian, who won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad at the end of February. "Things were looking really bad for Jan at first. He had fallen on his head. After about five minutes, he was able to get up and continue his way to the bus. All in all, it wasn't too bad. At least: that's what he says himself."

Visma | Lease a Bike had to do most of the work in chasing Pedersen and Van der Poel

As far as Tratnik is concerned, we have to wait and see. It was all too clear that the sympathetic hard rider's DNF was a hard blow in Gent-Wevelgem. In the chase for the leading group, Visma | Lease a Bike could not close the gap. "Normally, if there are still about sixty people, Jan is always there too. On that last time up the Kemmelberg, you lose it a bit," Wynants believes. "It's exactly those twenty seconds you're missing to keep things doable. Otherwise, you could have closed a twenty-second gap, with someone else doing the lead work."

"Towards the finale, it was other teams that let us do the work. When it ultimately comes down to winning, a few other contenders would appear, should they see that we couldn't close the gap. That's what we just couldn't capitalize on, because the gap was too large," the Belgian concludes in a clear tone. "This was the maximum achievable today. We have to learn to live with that. You just miss guys like Jan Tratnik or Christophe Laporte."

Kooij is also realistic about his day in the press release on the team's website: "I would have liked to have been on the podium. Unfortunately, that was no longer possible in the end. After a race of 250 kilometers, it was a question of how good the legs would still be for the sprint. They didn't feel super anymore. Before the last climb of the Kemmelberg, the peloton slowed down. The gap to the breakaways kept getting bigger, so it quickly became clear that we would be sprinting for the honorary finishes. The wind played to their advantage, making it extremely difficult to make up time. In hindsight, this is a fine result."