Tiesj Benoot on Visma's tactical catastrophe: "I just really wanted to see him win, but it was a stupid decision"
Cycling
Tiesj Benoot showed his best legs of the season today at Dwars door Vlaanderen where Team Visma | Lease a Bike collectively attacked and made the difference to all but one rider. But then his form wasn't utilized in the best form and after the team lost the race to Neilson Powless in surprising fashion, Visma is left licking it's psychological wounds. Benoot explains what happened through his point of view.
“I think we are doing a good race, it was the first time in these classics that we were able to execute our plan. Almost perfectly. In the last lap we all wanted Wout to win after what happened last year," Benoot admitted in an interview with Wielerflits. The idea was very simple, carry the race to a sprint where on paper he would be the main favourite.
Instead of attacking, Benoot and Jorgenson burnt themselves working, although the chasing groups were still distant in the final kilometers. “We took it a bit too easy. In retrospect, we should have attacked Neilson in the last five kilometers. Before that, it was still too risky, given that the pursuers were not that far behind us. We wanted Wout to want us so badly that we took too many risks to take Neilson with us.”
“Why that decision? It grew of course. Matteo won last year and I just spent a long time with Wout in Tenerife. I wanted him to win more than I did," the Belgian admits. "I just really wanted to see him win, but it was a stupid decision. All credit to Neilson. He was very strong and rode a lot. We just should have put him under pressure a lot more.”
In the end, a cramped van Aert didn't have the power to beat the American. Benoot crossed the line in third place. “We were finally able to race the way we like to do. We were looking for that for a while in the classics, but today we succeeded. We deserved to finish it and be able to say that we are collectively very strong across the board," he concluded.
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🇧🇪 #DDV25
— Team Visma | Lease a Bike (@vismaleaseabike) April 2, 2025
“𝐅𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬, 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐩 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭!” 💯
Not the end we all hoped for, but what a 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 in Dwars door Vlaanderen. You guys should be very proud of the way you raced today: as a team for the victory. 🐝
Some great… pic.twitter.com/G8mg1DPnBf
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