Video: Did TV moto tow breakaway clear of Aqua Blue Sport chase?
This was the gap with exactly 10 minutes of racing remaining, with three teams working on the front of the lined-out peloton.
Video footage of Ronde van Drenthe suggests a chase by Irish team Aqua Blue Sport was done no favours by the TV moto in front of the breakaway.
The 206km race on Saturday saw an early three-man escape go clear.
And the despite the best efforts of several teams combining to bring them back, they failed.
Aqua Blue Sport was to the fore in the chase, especially on the finish circuits. There the leaders were just 10 seconds up the road.
At times it appeared one of the motos at the front of the peloton was close to the riders.
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But the situation looked considerably worse up the road. The gap would close to 10 seconds only to go out again.
At the finish the two leaders would still have 11 seconds on the bunch. This was despite the peloton being in full flight and the breakaway being clear for so long.
The breakaway seemed very close to the TV moto. It managed to increase their lead at the end of a 206km race. This was despite the three of them being out front for most of the race.
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The escape seemed to repeatedly draw very close to the TV moto on the straights.
And while no fault of the riders involved, the TV footage below suggests they were aided by the moto.
Back in the main field the bunch was lined out for periods. And several teams were combining in the chase, but still the gap was not closing.
And on the last lap midway through the gap edged out by a few seconds.
Aqua Blue Sport was in the bunch. It was really putting the pressure on the closing stages for their sprinter Adam Blythe.
In the end he would puncture with about 300 metres to the finish. Forced to sprint on a flat wheel, he ended the race in 4th place.
Jan-Willem Van Schip (Delta Cycling), Twan Castelijns (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) and Julius van den Berg (SEG Racing) were the three breakaway heroes.
Van den Berg would get dropped on the penultimate finishing lap. But the other two hung on to sprint it out.
Van Schip, whose Continental-level team rode the Rás last year, got the verdict over his WorldTour rival.
The final kilometres; last 10-15 mins is relevant section
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