Jasper Stuyven has spoken out about his thoughts on how the press has dealt with himself and the rest of the Belgian team's tactics at the recent World Championships.
In a pre-race press conference for Paris-Roubaix, it was inevitable that Stuyven would be asked about his opinion on what happened at the race and the fallout from that.
Since the race finished - with Stuyven finishing fourth in his hometown of Leuven and the next best-placed Belgian being pre-race favourite Wout van Aert in 11th place - Van Aert has had a back and forth with team-mate Remco Evenepoel who sacrificed his chances for the two leaders.
Stuyven said: "I’ve seen a lot of articles how we should have race before the race happened and how the guys were meant to race for Wout and how it should have gone and I think that’s exactly how we wanted to race.
“We did that, and now all of a sudden we’re so stupid and like idiots so if you don’t win. It’s really hard to give credit and I think that’s exactly what’s happening."
Evenepoel spoke out against the team tactics when they failed to bring the win home after he did so much work on the front of the peloton. Evenepoel also said he believed he had the ability to take victory in the 268.3km road race, which was eventually won by Julian Alaphilippe (France).
Van Aert however has since said Evenepoel knew what he signed up to and agreed to the tactics in the pre-race team meeting.
“Like I’ve said before, if we don’t win you guys [the media] are going to make out as if we failed," continued Stuyven.
"I’m still proud of how we raced and left everything out there and we were all going for the goal, Belgium in general was going for that but if you don’t win it’s enough to put you down and that’s actually, for me, quite annoying to see they had to go that way."
Stuyven is now focussing on Paris-Roubaix as he comes into the race alongside Mads Pedersen as a two-pronged attack for victory with a strong Trek-Segafredo line-up to support them.
Paris-Roubaix takes place on Sunday, October 3 with the women's edition happening for the first time the day before the men's to make a weekend of brutal cobbled riding.
Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
-
-
Seven men jailed for stealing bikes worth £70k from Rutland Cycling shop
Police caught the gang of thieves who had stolen 23 bikes from the chain store in Grafham Water
By Ryan Dabbs •
-
These are all the teams applying for WorldTeam and Women’s WorldTeam status next year
Qhubeka-NextHash miss the first deadline, as five women’s teams apply to step up to the top level
By Alex Ballinger •
-
Tadej Pogačar adds World Championships and Giro d'Italia to his wish list but is not done with the Tour de France
The Slovenian says he's still hungry to win at the Tour despite his dominance over the last year
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
'I’m happy to try Paris-Roubaix in the wet once': Mads Pedersen ready for two-pronged attack with Jasper Stuyven
The former world champion hit out at some riders saying they don't want to ride the 'Hell of the North' in the rain
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
'The girls who were still there can blame themselves': Annemiek van Vleuten critical of team-mates at World Championships
Demi Vollering was due to be a key rider for the sprint but didn't have the legs after multiple mechanicals
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
'Remco Evenepoel was the best man in the race after Julian Alaphilippe': Lefevere baffled by Belgian tactics at World Championships
The Deceuninck - Quick-Step boss is happy to keep the rainbow jersey in the team but questions the Belgians' ride
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
Road World Championships 2021: Strava data shows brutality of race around Flanders
Remco Evenepoel, Michael Valgren, Dylan van Baarle and more posted their rides to the site
By Tim Bonville-Ginn •
-
Thomas Voeckler: 'We wanted to attack earlier than everyone else at Worlds so they would think we were idiots'
French boss happily accepts fine for coaching Julian Alaphilippe when it wasn't permitted
By Richard Windsor •
-
'I don't want to become a robot': Julian Alaphilippe's second rainbow jersey is another triumph for pure bike racing
The Frenchman was relentless in the defence of his world title
By Jonny Long •
-
'S**t, it's up to me now': Michael Valgren 'saves the day' for Danish Worlds hopes
With a stacked team, much was expected of Denmark, who suffered many misfortunes during the men's road race, but still came up with a bronze medal
By Jonny Long •
