Regarding conditioning.
If there was a concern among riders, it was that some regretted riding harder than they otherwise would have on Thursday, during course reconnaissance.
Belgian Sven Nys told Het Nieuwsblad that while he was relaxed about the date change, he regretted training hard on Thursday under the assumption he had 72 hours to recover.
“The conditions are the same for everyone, there is no problem and there is nothing to do about it, “Nys said. “The disadvantage is that Thursday I trained seriously, which I would have never done. Today there is only one thing to do — rest, and enough hope to recover. Normally I would go today to explore the course again, but instead I’ll rest.”
American Tim Johnson said the same, telling VeloNews: “It doesn’t matter to me as a rider, although I wish I hadn’t ridden so hard yesterday. It doesn’t affect me all that much.
“I suppose you could talk about the minuscule difference made by doing openers two days before instead of one day before, but everyone’s in the same boat. It sucks the most for all the people who were looking forward to two full days of cheering and partying.”
