Tour of Britain – Stage 1 – Jonas Van Genechten – I felt good, but I was caught off-guard by the number of turns in the final –

Some hours before the struggle for the overall classification at the Tour of Spain would be fought, the Tour of Britain staged its own breathtaking final for the first day in the streets of Wrexham.  At the end of this initial stage, which had been designated for the sprinters, Elia Viviani (Sky) did not disappoint his team by taking the victory. The young Italian sprinter found a way to out-fox the local favorite Mark Cavendish (Etixx-Quickstep) and the on-form André Greipel (Lotto Soudal), to take the stage and as a result the first leader’s jersey of the race.  IAM Cycling, in spite of having brought house sprinter Jonas Van Genechten to the race, failed to pull a win out of the hat in the mass sprint.  Having had to brake at an untimely moment after passing under the flamme rouge, the Belgian rider had to draw a line under this first opportunity to contest a sprint with the best in the world. 

At the time of explanation, Jonas Van Genechten was disappointed by missing out on his first chance.  “The stage in itself was not that difficult especially since Etixx-Quickstep, Sky and Lotto Soudal were the ones responsible for monitoring the breakaway.  For my part, I felt good, but I was caught off-guard by the number of turns in the final.  There was not much room to move, and I found myself blocked at exactly the wrong time.  So I did not have the opportunity to place myself well in time for the sprint.”

Kjell Carlström, one of the directeurs sportifs for IAM Cycling at the Tour of Britain along with Rubens Bertogliati, confirmed this mistake.  “During the morning briefing, we developed a strategy to put Jonas in a good position for the sprint.  This unfortunately did not go according to plan, even though the first part of the race we got through without any major problems.  The team did its work perfectly and Roger Kluge piloted Jonas through the day until the final three kilometers.  But our sprinter struggled with all of the bends and the narrowness of the road, which is why we were just not able to maintain our position.”