Tudor bounces back in Kuurne after 'shit day' in Omloop
It is not a sight you see very often: two riders from the same team sprinting their way onto the podium. At Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Luca Mozzato and Matteo Trentin delivered that rare moment for Tudor Pro Cycling, washing away the bitter aftertaste of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with a swift response.
“I’m pretty happy, honestly, because yesterday we had a very tough day as a team,” Mozzato said in the post race flash interview. “We had a lot of crashes. Last night we were a bit sad because a few guys really went down hard.”
The Italian pointed to the impact of injuries suffered by teammates including Rick Pluimers, who lost two teeth, and Stefan Küng, who suffered a fractured left thigh. “I’m happy that today we could hit back.”
Mozzato admitted there was little he could do once Brennan launched in the finale. “He had a big gap on me,” he said. “I got the maximum possible out of it. I can be happy with the podium.”
The race was not straightforward for him, particularly through the climbing phase where the repeated efforts strained his legs and positioning. “The hill zone was quite tough for me. I had to suffer and I was never really at the front. At the end I could recover again for the sprint. It was enough for a nice result.”
For Trentin, the podium was a surprise that arrived despite a long day of spending energy on the rises and in the wind. “It’s a bit unexpected that I’m on the podium,” he said. “After all the energy I used during the day, on the climbs, I didn’t expect I would still have such a good sprint. I also had to come from quite far compared to the first two guys, so I’m happy.”
The veteran Italian also returned to the team’s difficult Saturday, describing the mood shift that powered Tudor’s response in Kuurne. “Sometimes you have to use bad luck as motivation,” Trentin said. “We started with only five riders today, because half the team went to the hospital yesterday. The other half, including myself, had to go to the doctor. So yes, yesterday was a shit day.”
Sunday’s result, he insisted, belonged to more than the two riders on the podium. “Today we got the maximum out of it,” Trentin said. “These podium places are for Rick Pluimers, Stefan Küng, Marco Haller, for Petr Kelemen, who rode on the front all day while he also crashed yesterday. It’s always a team performance.”
Result: Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne
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