Lost in Translation

"I was really mad at myself yesterday, to finish 90th was not good for me," Nuyens further explained his deception at Het Volk. "I wasn't super and was sitting too far back on the cobbles. I was spewing and deeply disappointed. It was a strange race; a big gamble in the finale. So this puts it straight. In a few weeks time things will culminate."

"Yesterday was a stupid race really," the World Champion told Sporza. "There never was real racing happening. I was like: 'common guys, what are you doing here?' I was disappointed by the tactics, but that's the other teams' good right - maybe we would have done the same if we had been in their position. Today we took control of the race. I threw a bomb in the ranks. I let the guys come back in the finale, and I told the rest that they could do as they wanted and they panicked a bit."

"Everything is going much easier for me than last year," Steegmans told Cyclingnews. "I feel that particularly in the climbing sections. Peter Van Petegem advised me to stop thinking so much. This way, I fight for my place in the bunch. It means that you have to ride like your life depends on it, but I'll take that for granted. But I already felt that I can compete with the best since the Eneco Tour of Benelux last season. This winter, I've been training really hard with Leon Van Bon. Staying healthy combined with a good winter delivers now."

"He didn't climb in our hierarchy but I must admit that we have a lot of confidence in this young man. He wasn't in the breakaway at Nokere. This made us pursue for more than 12 km. Maybe that cost us a third man in the final break. Gert was nailed between three Quick.Step riders, so we accept our defeat. What's more concerning to me is Peter Van Petegem: he didn't have any power. He's probably getting ill, as a lot of people are these days."