Coming off a huge win last weekend Team Garmin-Cervélo turned its attention to the hilly Classics with a re-tooled team, starting the mid-week semi-Classic De Brabantse Pijl in Belgium. Director sportif Johnny Weltz sent this report:
This semi-Classic leads the riders into the hilly Classics. The dificulty today was all in the end on a technical circuit with some hard hills.
The big favorite of the race won today after a complete bunch hit the circuit with 5 laps of 12 km each.
There was immediately a selection the first time around, where Sep Vanmarcke took his leave after doing a solid job to keep the whole thing together. Our guys weren’t able to follow when the first attack went, and unfortunately it was the good one.
Later into the race they came stronger, but a little too late. In the end they didn’t manage to get the best out of a strong number of our riders in the first group and we ended outside the top 10.
But it is still a good sign for the rest of the hilly Classics ahead.
More photos from De Brabantse Pijl:
