Deceuninck-Quick Step were on pace to win the team time trial opening the Vuelta a Espana, but a parked Jumbo-Visma car put an end to that dream. “Such a shame!” tweeted Philippe Gilbert.
Jumbo-Visma, who had been favourites to win, suffered a heavy time loss when four of their riders, including team leaders Primoz Roglic and Steven Kruijswijk, crashed just after a corner, due to water on the road. All of their riders were able to continue, but mostly on new bikes.
The bike changes lead to a string of mechanicals, and for one Jumbo Visma team car to park close to a blind corner, just as Deceuninck, the next team came flying around the bend.
“It's a miracle that we could all avoid the car,” team leader Wilfried Peeters told nieuwsblad.be. “But that incident caused some riders to fall back, so that I had to oder something to be withheld,” thus losing enough time to finish a mere two seconds behind winner Astana.
"Jumbo-Visma took the victory away from us. That was a curve we would normally take at high speed."
Veteran Gilbert, who is leaving the team after this season, put it more diplomatically, Tweeting: "A superb effort by the team today, but in the end we just missed out on the win and the red jersey because of the Jumbo Visma car who was still standing in our way. Such a shame!"
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