"We weren't really in the race" - Bad luck took its toll on ambitions of Lotto Dstny at Vuelta

Lotto Dstny had a great start to the Vuelta a Espana with leader Lennert Van Eetvelt nearly taking a stage victory atop Pico de Villuercas. However that was pretty much the last we've seen from the Belgian PRT team as Van Eetvelt alongside Andreas Kron abandon the race early and the rest of the team appeared rather toothless.

"That second place was very close," Sports director Marc Wauters recalls the fourth stage. "We could have won there. The general classification with Lennert was the main goal, and we had a strong start. We remained in the top ten throughout that first week, and that’s obviously motivating. It elevates the team to a higher level. You have a reason to stay in the front, the peloton respects that, and everyone on the team wants to give their all in those moments, no matter how much work it takes to support a GC contender."

After a promising start, luck turned its back at Lotto Dtsny: "But then Andreas Kron crashed. Victor Campenaerts also crashed, as did Sylvain Moniquet. And then we saw Lennert start to fade and eventually drop out due to illness," Wauters continues. "That kind of thing really disrupts a team, of course. We lost our two team leaders early in this Vuelta and had to search for new objectives and a new focus."

Naturally, the new aim was a stage success. However that wasn't really possible with both leaders out of the race. "When you're no longer in contention for the general classification, you have to shift to aiming for stage wins. But Andreas is a guy who could have competed and finished strong. And with Lennert, we could have tackled the tough climbs in the final week, but without them, we weren't really in the race. However, we did show fighting spirit. We came close with Jonas Gregaard in Santander. In that same stage, Campenaerts also tried. And in the final time trial, we were in the mix but had to settle for seventh place. Arjen Livyns sprinted into the top ten a few times, and we managed a couple of early breakaways."