"We were simply not good enough" - Team Visma | Lease a Bike's Strade Bianche performance slammed by DS

After their stunning domination of 'Opening Weekend', Team Visma | Lease a Bike had high hopes of making an impression at the head of the race at Strade Bianche. Sadly, that's not quite how things played out.

Tade Pogacar put down one of the all-time great individual rides to take the win after 81km solo. Even behind the Slovenian though, Team Visma | Lease a Bike struggled, Christophe Laporte being their best-placed finisher in 10th. Afterwards, the team's sports director, Grischa Niermann was heavily critical of his team's performance.

"This is not the result we came for. We were simply not good enough today. We can and may be that honest," Niermann says in a post-race review for the official website of Team Visma | Lease a Bike. "Christophe still rode a very good race. He just nestled himself in the top ten, between a lot of good climbers."

Behind Laporte, the rest of a strong Team Visma | Lease a Bike outfit that included the likes of Attila Valter, and Sepp Kuss among others finished well behind. "The conditions certainly didn't make it any easier, but Strade Bianche is tough every year. We also knew that beforehand. It's abundantly clear that the best got away with the top prize today," Niermann concludes.