Tuft De Panne

Stepping on the gas!
via GreenEDGE

"How sketchy was that?" said Svein Tuft to GreenEDGE DS, Matt White after coming in third on the 14.7km TT at The Three Days of De Panne.

Watching this excellent GreenEDGE backstage pass report says it all... frustration that the pre-favorite Tuft was slowed down around the apex of a corner, by a ...VIP car. He definitely would have finished onto the podium,  more deserving than his fourth overall.

I'm enjoying the backstage pass coverage by GreenEDGE, an entertaining collection of videos (you really have to watch their fun videos ie bike riders can't cook and I won't back down).

In fact, GreenEDGE is rare to be transparent, not editing out their videos but allowing the truth to their viewers. Matt White was justified in his actions at how unprofessional a professional race can be. He shouldn't apologize. Why was that VIP car allowed to follow the race in the first place?

Svein Tuft finished 17 seconds behind the powerful winning ride by Sylvain Chavanel.

"I felt good, it was one of those days, you always hope to feel good on an important time trial day, and it was a good ride. I am familiar with the course, I've ridden it a few times, so I had good memorization of the course, and it's a course that suits me. I had a little trouble: I caught a guy in one of the 180-dgree turnarounds, and the follow car was stuck in between us, so I lost a little time there, and I was concerned that with caliber of riders here, it was going to be very close. You don't want that to hold you up, and I was fortunate to get through, but it bobbled my momentum a bit."


Stage 3b results: 1. Sylvain Chavanel (17:49)   2. Lieuwe Westra (0:04)  3. Svein Tuft (0:17) 4. Niki Terpstra (0:18)  5. Maciej Bodnar (0:19).

Overall:  1. Sylvain Chavanel (12:05:44)  2. Lieuwe Westra (0:04)  3. Maciej Bodnar (0:14)  4. Svein Tuft (0:17)  5. Niki Terpstra (0:18)

This episode of Backstage Pass...

Matt White, doesn't hold back, goes bananas!