Jens Verbrugge. — © BELGIUM
One more time, without too many emotions, junior Jens Verbrugghe wanted to come back to what had happened to him in the individual time trial. A human error, point on the line.
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To his own surprise, the time trial bike with which Jens Verbrugghe wanted to complete his individual chrono race on Tuesday morning was rejected ten minutes before the start of the race. Verbrugghe had no choice but to finish his race on the spare bike made available by Belgian Cycling. The son of ex-national coach Rik was too disappointed on Tuesday to respond, but he was willing to give his version of the facts for a night’s sleep.
“It is especially regrettable what happened,” said Verbrugghe. “After the European Championships (in August, red) I sent my bike back to the team (juniores team Groupama, red) for a check. They changed my crank there and apparently put a 53 in front of it. When I got my bike back I knew nothing about it. I trained with my bike the following weeks and felt nothing. A team time trial was scheduled in Aubel and my bike was approved there. I thought everything was fine. Here at the World Cup, a first check-up was carried out two hours before the race and it was also good. Ten minutes before my start I was told that my bike was not in order after all. I then rode my time trial on the spare bike that I had never ridden before. Then you know that the result cannot be good.”
“What happened is human error. Partly mine, because I didn’t see it. But I can’t turn back the clock. It’s done, now I’m going to try to be mentally ready for Friday’s road race. That should work, I think. I know the condition is good. And out of respect for the federation, I also want to make it a good game. Did I sleep well? It’s in your head, of course, but I tried not to think too much about it and managed to get some sleep.” (gvdl)
