Sports Director Christian Kos. "This was a good team time trial for us. We had obviously drawn up a plan beforehand that best fitted within everyone's capabilities of our riders. In the first part, the plan was for Elena Cecchini, Lisa Van Belle and Mikayla Harvey to sacrifice themselves for the team by doing at least one strong turn each. They performed perfectly on the ascending sections. In the second part, this left us with our riders with the biggest engines. They had to go full throttle in the descending sections towards the finish to make the most of it. The entire team executed this plan perfectly as planned beforehand, so kudos to the riders."

"That we finished at just three seconds is a bit annoying somewhere because we were so close. But it's an excellent result for us. Three seconds, that's so to speak one bonification sprint difference. That's worked away in no time. Some other teams lost time today. So this is a nice start for us, better than expected and a nice starting point for what's to come."

"The beauty of this stage race is: we come to the start with no pressure. With Anna van der Breggen, we have someone who can do well in the GC, but she is not the top favourite. So we are going into it open and will consequently be able to race freely. We also have some nice cards to play to go for day success. It's nice to be able to start free and without pressure. Starting with tomorrow's stage," said Christian Kos.