From 'it makes no sense' to 'how dangerous this was' - Romeo, Vacek and Turner react to Valenciana time trial drama

Stage 2 of the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana saw Remco Evenepoel take the stage win, but this was not the topic that has been discussed throughout the peloton before, during and after the stage. The day's times were neutralized due to the strong wind on course, and this split the opinion of the riders.

"I was not very motivated today after all happened. It's very difficult to focus, you know, when the last two hours before the start you are on the phone, on a group chat, trying to figure out what we are going to do. Then you have to jump on the rollers and do the warm up," Iván Romeo said in words to CyclingPro.net.

The Spaniard had high hopes for this stage, to jump up the overall classification and also fight for a top result. Hence, he was quite unhappy with the decision to remove GC times from the day that suited him best.

"It's not ideal, not happy also with how it went regarding the decision. I think it was not perfect of course, but it was possible to race today as we did. We went 50Km/h and I don't understand the decision of doing the race by the time not counting for GC". This was due to safety decisions, however the riders were allowed to race for the stage victory nevertheless.

"I think it makes no sense. If we are not going to take risks, we don't do the race. I don't know how many guys, but I think maybe 60-70% of the riders went full gas. I really don't understand the situation. I think there should be a protocol and it shouldn't be us deciding and talking 20 minutes before the start of the race," the Spaniard argued.

He agrees however that the time trial bike was too dangerous for the day due to these conditions, but that did not mean the race had to be neutralized. "Yeah, I mean, yeah, not normal, not normal. We couldn't do the TT on a TT bike. It was impossible. I also said that, but yeah, it's like 50% wanted to just race as we did, but the time should count for GC. Then some others didn't want to. At the end the decision was like that".

"And as I said, I think it shouldn't be up to us [riders]. There should be, I don't know, rules or just someone outside of the riders who will decide what we do or what we don't do. Because like this it makes no sense," the irritated Spaniard said with honesty. "It's a good idea, a difficult question and I don't know. It's not up to me to say. But I think it's something the riders, we should discuss. Yeah, and we need to talk about that in the future".

He ended the day without a result, feeling very frustrated halfway through his time trial knowing that he wasn't going to benefit from his effort. "No. It was really difficult to focus on the top of the climb I said on the radio 'I think I will just go easy'. Then they told me I had second time. I was like 'it's impossible'. I was feeling really bad, but I don't know. I think it's just a very weird day. Just try to forget it and move on".

Mathias Vacek rode to third on the day, the best of the rest after the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe riders. "We knew it would be windy already from yesterday, they told us, but during the recon it was surprising how dangerous this was actually," he said.

"The course with this strong wind, so they decided to not do it on the TT bike and go with the normal bike to be safe and not have any danger on the course. Nothing changed for me, I was still going for it and tried to take the stage, but I knew Remco will be strong and he will go for it". The win was out of range for most, but the Czech rider nevertheless was keen on giving it his all on the road.

He wanted to test himself in the field as well, to gauge his level. "It was a good TT for sure for the start of the season, and even though it was on a normal bike I am really satisfied how it went and we are looking forward to the next stages".

Lidl-Trek are having to continue this race without Mads Pedersen, whom he'd be supporting on the opening days, and also in the cobbled classics which are now in doubt in terms of form. "Of course it's not nice when you lose the leader, the man of the team I would say. Bad for him, I feel really sorry to start the season like this, but I know he is strong, he is strong mentally and he will come back really soon, even stronger, so I wish him the best recovery and we are still here fighting for him and for the team in this race and we do our best".

In the next few days however, Vacek is going to be the GC leader for the German team, and will chase his own results in the race. "The shape is quite good so I will try to do my best. The level is really high here so it will not be easy to win a stage, but I will do my best, I am confident and we will see how it goes. Tomorrow it's probably not too hard, but definitely the next two days will be really challenging, so looking forward to it".

"Yeah, I was feeling really good, so that's the main thing at this time of year and I really felt like I could push, you know, and the legs would recover and could hold quite a nice pace, so I think it's pretty solid, yeah," he said following his effort.

Turner was fourth on the day, a strong result for the INEOS Grenadiers Briton who continues to evolve on all types of terrain. "It was a bit of a crazy day with the bike changes and wind and not knowing what's going to happen but I think it's solid enough, you know, a second is good and it's a good feeling, so that's the main thing now".

He agrees however with the decision to make changes to the initial plan, however also reports confusion in the morning. "I think it was correct for sure to not ride the TT bike because honestly it was dangerous".

"And I think that's a smart decision and it was a bit confusing what we were going to do but in the end we make a race and I think you can also get a good effort out like it was a normal TT, so that's positive and especially at this time of year, you know, you also want to use every day you have and it was good".