Eager Ronhaar overplays his cards a bit in Antwerp: "Maybe I shouldn't have done that"

Pim Ronhaar, who stood second in the overall ranking before the World Cup in Antwerp, lost some points because of his eleventh place in Antwerp. The Baloise Trek Lions rider held one thing in particular against himself after the race in the city on the Scheldt, so he told IDLProCycling.com.

Ronhaar, who had already won two World Cup races this season and finished second in Namur last week, started the race well. "It's maybe not entirely my kind of course, but that normally shouldn't be a problem. I felt fine at the beginning, but at a certain point, I took the lead to keep the pace up. Maybe I shouldn't have done that."

"I felt very strong, so I didn't immediately consider at that moment that it was a disadvantage," explained the ever talkative cyclist. "However, the sand wasn't technical enough to put the others under pressure, so that was probably the only mistake I made. I tried my best and gave it my all for one hour, so this was the highest I could achieve."

"I would have been better off positioning myself in the group and then waiting for the last few rounds, which is actually what Eli does perfectly," Ronhaar complimented the leader in the World Cup standings. "Towards the end, there was just too much decline. Thibau fell again, causing us to also miss the connection. And my back started acting up as well, so yeah... that's no big problem, though; it also starts to play tricks on your mind when things get tougher," he nuanced those problems.

Ronhaar was not focused on Van Aert and Van der Poel and maintains second place in World Cup rankings

For Ronhaar, it was his first encounter this season with Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert in the field. "I also said beforehand that I'm not going to pay too much attention to that. We are pretty much on par with Wout and Tom, but Mathieu is just in a class of his own."

Ronhaar still holds onto his second place in the World Cup rankings, ahead of teammates Lars van der Haar and Joris Nieuwenhuis. "I lost quite a few points. They are catching up a bit, but Tuesday's round suits me better," he refers to the heavy mud of Gavere. "Now I want to recover well and then we'll start again."