Third place "was the highest achievable", Laurens Sweeck satisfied with Europeans performance

Yesterday's mudfest in Namur favoured some riders, whilst it harmed the chances of other to fight for the European jersey. Laurens Sweeck was somewhat inbetween, as he finished far from the win, however with a bronze medal added to his palmarès.

"Secretly you hope for a little more, but I think I'm satisfied with what I performed today," Sweeck said in a post-race interview. "I tried my best. My condition is good, but I didn't have a super day. On a circuit like that I really need it to compete for a win. I did everything I could to have it, but it didn't really work out. I think this was the highest achievable.”

Whilst Lars van der Haar and Michael Vanthourenhout stood out in the opening lap of the race, Sweeck was briefly the closest competitor. However as the sections became more and more slippery and crashes became frequent, Sweeck - like the rest of the field - was distanced.

“I thought maybe that would give me that little bit extra here. Last weekend was also a double weekend and the Koppenberg finds out very quickly, while that's not really my thing. That is extra heavy for me. Maybe I should have done better, you can discuss that afterwards. But I have nothing to blame myself for," he continued. 

Sweeck kept his position however, riding into third place after not succumbing to the harsh conditions and poor luck, as was the case with Eli Iserbyt and Quinten Hermans for example. “When I finish that descent, I got very close to them. But it was on the limit, then you make mistakes. The fact that I was driving at the limit there is also a sign that I couldn't ride.

"Given the differences after that, it wasn't up to me to ride even faster. Those two for me were just too strong," he concluded.