Dekker just hurt too much

Thomas Dekker of Team Rabobank just had too many aches and pains to do well in the Eneco Tour time trial and hold on to his leader's jersey. He was involved in the mass crash the previous day which eliminated the leader Nick Nuyens, and he had been having problems with his hip anyway.

"Such a blow costs a lot of energy; your body needs to recover. I feel very tired because of that. And besides, my hip was not the only thing that hurt today," he said on the team's website, rabobank.nl.

The 22 year-old knew that it would be difficult under any circumstances, since the rest of the top five was no more than 27 seconds behind him and all are time trial specialists. He said that he rested well, "but I could not get myself going again. And there is nothing to lean on during the race; you have to do it all by yourself. The morale was worse than it usually is, as well." Dekker ended the day in 21st place and dropped to fifth overall.

Directeur Sportif Erik Dekker was not unhappy with the youngster. "This performance is obviously unworthy of Thomas, but the blame for that falls totally on the bad day we had yesterday with that crash. What I saw today is what I feared yesterday. It did not work because the hip is, after all, the pivoting point between the legs and back. So, I can easily understand that he could not deliver a good time trial."