"We came up short in the final kilometers’: Visma | LaB had "hoped for more" with Brennan during stage 2 in Poland

“This victory is really special,” Lapeira said after his flash interview. “I had excellent legs all day, so I was very confident. When I felt it was the right moment, I went for it. The team did a great job. It's always a real pleasure to have teammates in front of you, as was the case today.”

The 25-year-old Frenchman recorded his second WorldTour victory, after winning a stage in the Tour of the Basque Country last year. As a bonus, he will also wear the leader's jersey on Wednesday in stage three. "Keeping that jersey is always difficult, especially in a WorldTour race. But to be honest, I feel very strong, so we'll see. There are a lot of riders in good shape, but we'll do our best. I have a very good team at my side, and we'll do everything we can to keep it that way. To be honest, the race is already a success for us, the rest is just a bonus," Lapeira concluded.

In Tuesday's stage results, we had to go down to 35th place to find the first rider from Visma | Lease a Bike. Attila Valter came in at that position, 41 seconds behind stage winner Lapeira. That was not what the Killer Bees had in mind. “This was unfortunately not the result we had hoped for,” sports director Jesper Mørkøv reflected on the Dutch team's website.

“We rode strongly throughout the stage but came up short in the final kilometres,” concluded the Dane, who saw Niklas Behrens do a good job. “Niklas did an excellent job at the front of the peloton in support of Matthew Brennan. Matthew was determined to be in the mix today, but in the end, he simply didn’t have enough left. Tomorrow presents another good opportunity for him to show what he can do, and we’re looking forward to that.”