Laurens Ten Dam can't believe Jumbo-Visma allowed group of "killers" a three minute lead at Tour of Flanders: "Jumbo's first really big mistake this year"

With Jumbo-Visma having to watch on as Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel battled it out for the Tour of Flanders victory and Wout van Aert as a distant fourth. Laurens Ten Dam believes it was a problem of their own making.

The issue with Jumbo-Visma tactics that Ten Dam has, is that the team allowed a group including many big names, and Jumbo-Visma's own Nathan Van Hooydonck, was allowed a three minutes lead.

"He rides in a group with a former winner, Kasper Asgreen, Mads Pedersen, second in Flanders and former world champion, Matteo Jorgenson, who finished fourth in E3 and Neilson Powless, who has not ridden the last races outside the last ten. Küng can also finish reasonably well. You just know that he (Van Hooydonck) is not going to win."

'Live Slow Ride Fast podcast partner Thomas Dekker' agrees with Ten Dam's assessment. "If you pretend to be the very best cycling team, you can never gamble on Van Hooydonck," he says. "What will happen if you ride to the finish nine times out of ten with those names? Then it is of course wonderful if Nathan finishes fourth. That is wonderful for him, but not for Jumbo-Visma."

Jumbo-Visma had enjoyed a period or early season dominance prior to the Tour of Flanders and the question now is, can they pick themselves up from this disappointment and get back to their winning ways?