Riders reactions after Pijnacker

Bart Wellens

Bart Wellens finished the Dutch round of the World Cup in second, but explained that he didn't feel as good as Saturday when he won in Neil. "Definitely in the first half hour I didn't have the legs that I had on Saturday," Wellens told HLN.be.

"I gained morale because the others never gained more time on me even though I felt like I was not going anywhere myself. I was never more than a hundred meters behind. When I came back, I had the bad luck that Boom had calculated that that was the time to attack. I was able to hang on but the best was already gone. Each time I tried to overtake him, but I was never able to come around him and I then realised that I couldn't win."

That Wellens fought the entire weekend against Boom and not Nys came as no surprise. "Sven is just a man of flesh and blood," he said. "On top of that I have seen over the past few weeks that he is not as untouchable as in recent years. He remains the best rider of our generation but the top has now just become a lot broader. That Boom wins should not surprise us at all. We saw last winter already that he would quickly become a rival, just like Zdenek Stybar and Klaas Vantornout."

Klaas Vantornout

After a non start on Saturday due to sickness, Belgian Klaas Vantornout lined up on Sunday with the aim of salvaging a few World Cup points, yet ended up going home with a podium place. "My world fell apart on Friday night," Vantornout said. "I woke up with a swollen throat and had to take pain killers. Saturday morning I went to the doctors who told me that I had a swollen glands and a throat infection.

"That afternoon I feel asleep while watching the race in Niel on TV before leaving for Pijnacker that evening. I wanted to race in Pijnacker because a 17th place in a World Cup is still good for 60 points. You have to win a first category race for that. I had a good nights sleep and it has gone better than I had dared hoped for. The sickness is not yet set in properly I guess."