Boels Dolmans came into the women's team time trial at the World Championships as the defending champions and the overriding favourites, but it was Team Sunweb who stole the show to win gold, pushing last year's winners into second place.
While Sunweb's victorious six jubilantly celebrated their upset, the Boels squad were left wondering what might have been after leading the race at the top of the final climb. However, on the following descent and the technical run-in to the line Sunweb managed to turn a 15-second deficit into a 12-second lead.
"It's disappointing when you don't bring it home. It sucks," Boels Dolmans' Danny Stam told Cyclingnews as he stood by the team car at the finish.
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"We've not yet analysed the finale. In my opinion we were fast but we just weren't fast enough. We made the race how we wanted and we came to the top of the climb where we wanted and with a good group but we lost 12 seconds in the last part and that's a bit sour."
In the first half of the race everything looked on course for a repeat Boels victory. They had no problems with the opening sections along the rolling Norwegian roads, and although they sat second at the first time check (10.5km), there was still plenty of racing still to come.
At the next check (32km) Boels were 15 seconds up on their nearest rivals, had an intact team, and began to stretch their legs as they settled into the familiar position of leading. However, between the summit of the climb and the finish the race began to unravel.
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