Zdenek Stybar was not happy today. Our champion was disappointed after the individual time trail in the Eneco Tour. “My time was bad,” Styby sighed. “That's to be expected though. I never train on my time trial bike. It's a shame, but I just don't have the time.”
The 15 kilometer time trial took place in and around Roermond. “I was really motivated to hold on to 16th place in the general classification. I had a good warmup and was really focused before the start. But then it started to rain.”
Styby ended up losing 1:40 to winner Jesse Sergent and 1:15 to Edvald Boasson Hagen, who now leads the general classification. “The riders in the top 20 also had to deal with the rain so I can't blame my slow time on that. It's to be expected though. I've never trained for this discipline, you know. That's usually done in the winter, but I'm busy with cyclocross then. It's simple: you have to make choices.”
“If I do want to work on my time trial, I need to start with my position. It's not aerodynamic. I have a lot of work to do. I think I'd have lost less time today if I specialized in the time trial more. I do like it though. Hopefully next year I'll ride a minute faster.”
The new general classification sees Styby fall to 31st, almost 2 minutes behind Boasson Hagen. Tomorrow is an easy stage to Genk and the final stage on Sunday in Dutch Limburg will take the peloton over a number of hills, including the Cauberg and the Eyerbosweg.
