In today's Vuelta al Pais Vasco stage two, Paul Martens finished fifth. In the streets of Eltziego, he was overtaken by winner Michael Albasini and three other riders. LottoNL-Jumbo's riders George Bennett and Primož Roglič finished in the peloton.

"It would have been ideal if I had a team-mate in my wheel. Then it would be perfect," said Martens.

"In the last kilometre, Tosh Van der Sande went and I went after him immediately. You know that with such a downhill finish not many riders can overtake you."

Martens got Van der Sande and came with a decent lead through the final corner.

"I knew it was a slight right corner, but then I saw an arrow to the left, I hesitated. I touched my brakes and I lost my lead. It is not easy to think clearly if you go into a village at 70 kilometres per hour. It sucks, it probably cost me victory.

"Today, I put a lot of effort into keeping Bennett and Roglic in the front. I spent the day riding on the front of the peloton, so I was not fresh. But if you end up in a situation like that, you sprint.

"It was a hectic day. It was not a fast day because of the wind, but there were a lot of teams fighting with each other. It was constant fighting to stay up front. We did so perfectly and that's mainly thanks to Bert-Jan Lindeman. He paved the way for a perfect lead-out."

'We wanted more'

Sports Director Grischa Niermann added, "There was a chance of echelons. Therefore Frans Maassen drove the car ahead to check out the difficult points. I think other teams had that idea because it was constantly fighting to stay up front."

Niermann said he is upset that the work was not rewarded.

"We had three opportunities to win the stage. If Martens did not hesitate, he probably would've won. Also, Enrico Battaglin and Juan José Lobato had a great chance if they had remained in the wheel of Martens. We did not use our opportunities and that is very unfortunate."