Lisa Brennauer has finished third in today’s opening prologue of the Lotto Belgium Tour in Nieuwpoort, Belgium. The former individual time trial world champion finished eight seconds behind winner Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands) and one second behind Thalita de Jong (RLT).

CANYON//SRAM Racing placed five riders in the top fourteen in a strong showing on the 4.37km prologue course. Brennauer is now third on the general classification ahead of tomorrow’s 121km flat stage one in Moorslede. Racing starts at 14:00 (CEST) and can be followed on the team’s Twitter @WMNcycling and using #LottoBelgiumTour.

Read our rider’s reactions:

Lisa Brennauer: Of course I took this short ITT serious and I wanted to do a good race. It’s good preparation and every ITT to me is important and even this short one counts. I felt good with my preparation and I feel like I did a good race today.

You can’t save anything anywhere on a prologue. You have to go full gas everywhere. It wasn’t so easy in the beginning because it was a rough surface that I don’t like so much, but in the end I’m happy with my time and the result. I just came from Holland Ladies Tour so I didn’t feel super fresh today so I’m happy with this result.

Mieke Kröger: In the end I think it was an okay time. Just the distance was a bit too short for me. I gave everything I had but my motor isn’t really running in this short distance. I didn’t think too much about it. I just went full gas right from the start and tried my best. The first speed bump after the start felt like a start ramp for me, and when my bike went in the air, I felt like a bird for a short moment!

Tiffany Cromwell: It was five minutes and forty seconds. I didn’t feel like I had the power needed on that first part. It was very non-technical, straightforward course. With the bricks in the first part it suited those that like flat fast rough power courses. For me I did better than what I expected but I didn’t feel smooth. It was a good warm up for the tour.

Hannah Barnes: It was quite a nice course that kept you on your toes with the bumps. But it was a course that you could just go full gas, you didn’t have to worry about pacing yourself, you could just go 100%. And I think the team result was really good, we have 5 riders in the top 15, so I think we can go into the next days in a strong position as a team.

Alexis Ryan: I felt alright. I didn’t feel as smooth as I would have liked. The road surface made it hard to get into a rhythm. My time was okay,  I was up there with the top twenty or so. I’m somewhat happy with my ride.

Barbara Guarischi: It was a bit long. The first part was hard to be in the extensions because it was uncomfortable for my elbow, but okay. I found the last part of the course hard, into the headwind, and I ran out of power. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

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