VIEW FROM THE TEAM CAR
Rik Van Slyck, Deceuninck- QS DS
We had two options with Dries Devenyns and Sam Bennett. It’s always the same question in this race; who will attack, when will they attack and will the sprinter get over the climbs for the finale? We know the race well - Dries has been very close before, one time he was top five. We gave Dries a free role, to go whenever there was an attack on the local laps in Geelong.
There was a lot of wind, so this was the first difficulty; Dries had to be in a good position because the peloton started furiously. In the second half onto the local circuit, there were also crosswinds but it was not enough to split up the peloton. The second challenge was the climbs; Challambra Crescent and Melville Avenue taken on four times - they’re short and steep but it can be enough to split up in a break, like we saw.
We told Dries to sit and wait until the last lap to see what was happening behind. Before they hit the last climb there was still a possibility that the peloton could come back together. We knew there would be attacks to drop the sprinters, then we said to Dries, whenever somebody moves, you follow.
Dries has enough experience and is clever enough to know… it was the right move he made to follow and close the gap to [Pavel] Sivakov. Dries played a poker game and could say, ‘I can’t push full, my sprinter is coming.’
Dries has a good basic sprint. We told him to come out of Sivakov’s wheel and start his sprint as late as possible. Once he was over Sivakov, it’s difficult to come back.
We knew there would be attacks to drop the sprinters, then we said to Dries, whenever somebody moves, you follow