"We are just going to try and win this race, as we do in every race" - Brodie Chapman confirms Lidl-Trek doesn't intend to give the red jersey away without a fight

Lidl-Trek ladies achieved their main goal in the opening team time trial, winning the test against the clock and putting their GC ambition Gaia Realini in the red jersey. Yet not everything was ideal as Ellen van Dijk and Elynor Backstedt couldn't stay upright in the final section.

"It’s definitely mixed emotions," begins Brodie Chapman in press release. "We set out to win today, and Ellen van Dijk was crucial for it as she took the longest, hardest pulls. It was unfortunate that she crashed along with Elynor at the very end of the TTT. Without that crash, we would have won by a lot – yet we saved victory at the end, and it’s enough. We made some mistakes, yet we had an amazing race. Now we just hope for Ellen and Elynor to heal up quickly."

"We had to be aware of the wind today. It picked up a little bit from when we did the recon. The most challenging part, though, was that there is no recovery on a course like this, because it was really fast and straightforward."

"Seeing Gaia Realini in the Red jersey this early is pretty exciting. She has definitely come into the race in excellent form and we know how fantastic she is in the mountains. We are just going to try and win this race, as we do in every race," Chapman concludes.