Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team fell just short of victory on Tuesday, finishing a mere second lower than Orica-GreenEDGE in the 18km time trial. OPQS finished with a time of 21 minutes and nine seconds.
"The parcour was not so technical," Michal Kwiatkowski said. "It was fast. There were only three roundabouts where we had to be careful. I don't think we made any mistakes. "It's not so bad if you consider that due to the huge calendar we don't have time to train a lot for this discipline. We did also a good recon before the race. We did two laps of the circuit and all the guys knew where we should have to pay attention. It's not good to lose by only one second, but it's a part of the job. In any case we showed that we are in good shape and ready to fight in the next days."
"I think it was the best Team Time Trial I've ever ridden but it wasn't enough today," Tom Boonen said. "We didn't do mistakes but maybe we still have to work on little details. We can improve what's important. We can improve on the positioning and other little things. But today's result is great even if we didn't win. We have time before the TTT World Championship, even if it will be completely different. The distance will be different and the team will have to ride with only six guys. We will see. We have a strong team, some of our best time trialists were not present today so, we can only improve."
"It was a good TTT," Niki Terpstra said. "The wind was really strong and sometimes dangerous. We did well. When you lose for less then a second it's also a question of luck. Tomorrow it's a nice stage with the Cauberg. But the climb is pretty far from the finish, so I don't think it will be a factor. We can always try to attack but it won't be easy — it depends also on the wind. The team is strong, the TTT showed our strengh. We have a lot of riders who can be good. It will be a funny race until the end."