"I am not satisfied and will definitely give them my opinion" - Belgian coach furious after his team miss out on U23 road race world title

Axel Laurance of France claimed the under 23's World Championships road race world title on Saturday. Over a minute later, Alec Segaert came across the line in 7th as the top-ranked Belgian, a fact that has made coach Sven Vanthourenhout furious.

“I had given them one important assignment. If a group drove away from the start, someone had to be there," Vanthourenhout lamented post-race in conversation with Sporza and Het Nieuwsblad. " But first eight men drive away and they are not there. And then another six men ride off without one of them. Then you know enough, surely?”

On such a difficult and challenging circuit, Vanthourenhout believed there was a very high possibility of the breakaway staying clear, and that was exactly how it turned out. “If you start with a team of barely five riders, you don't have the luxury of being able to control the race," he explains. "Four out of five Belgians simply miss out on a world title here in my eyes. Individually they are all strong enough to beat anyone who has now driven the final here.”

“Nys only had to move along if a very large group of about twenty people left. He didn't have to jump on everything. But for everyone else this is incomprehensible. I haven't been able to speak to everyone yet, but there are no excuses for me. I am not satisfied and will definitely give them my opinion tonight. They're not newbies anymore, are they?" Vanthourenhout concludes. "Incomprehensible. Maybe I'm being very strict now, but I'm curious about their story. Because it turned out that they were all fine. They just weren't on their toes."