Sam Bennett may have been captured (above) expertly weaving through the field on stage 1 at UAE Tour - and displaying his bike handling skills - but the Irish rider and his team offered up an unvarnished analysis of their performance out on the road after none of them made the winning breakway.
While the team had Danny van Poppel and Bennett in the first group after the race split early, they were not on the ball to the same extent when the winning breakaway of 12 got clear with 29km to go, even though other teams had multiple riders in the move and Bahrain Victorious having four.
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The breakaway stayed away and some 51 seconds after Tim Merlier (Soudal QuickStep) won the stage, Bennett claimed the bunch sprint for 13, with his directeur later saying the outcome was "extremely disappointing" and that the team needed to be "smarter".
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For his part, Bennett was happy to be in the leading group early but disappointed to miss out when it really mattered later in the stage.
"Danny (van Poppel) and I fought hard to get into the first group," he said. "It was a tough day and with 25km to go we just weren't in the right position to make the jump into the lead group amidst the winds and the chaos in the group, which was quite disappointing. Now we have to wait a few days until we have another chance in the sprints."
Sports director Bernie Eisel said: "We knew from the outset that there would be echelons, but hoped that everyone would be a bit smarter and ride more calmly than the same stage in 2021. But this was ultimately not the case.
"We had Danny and Sam in the front and that worked out fine to a certain extent. Unfortunately, Emu (Buchmann) was a bit further back and the guys tried to keep him in a good position and give him an opportunity to come back, but unfortunately that didn't happen. However, we really can't be satisfied with the result.
"Sam and Danny were in the first group and we knew that there would be some wind in the corner, but we missed the move and we are extremely disappointed. We hope that things will go better in the next few days. Tomorrow is a team time trial and although we won't start with the highest hopes, we will give everything."
