Teunissen laughs at Omloop jokes ex-Jumbo-Visma mates: 'My neck is fine, it's been trained for years'

Intermarché-Wanty experienced no less than seven (!) crashes in Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday, but we don't have to look long for the culprit: Mike Teunissen managed to cross the finish line in both the Omloop and Kuurne in - unlucky - 13th place. A stroke of luck, and there is - if all goes well - more in store for the Limburger. IDLProcycling spoke to him! 

Always good for a joke, that guy from Ysselsteyn. He missed yours truly on Saturday at the start of the Omloop and took advantage of that with a joke, but also got the ball straight back. We did see Teunissen on screen quite a bit during the Omloop, but he was always looking back over his shoulder. With Mike in this position you know the season has only just officially begun," former teammate Koen Bouwman commented on Instagram;

Teunissen - as always - had a good laugh about it. My neck is fine, it is well trained after all these years. I also got all kinds of emails from them, so yeah...', Teunissen said, explaining immediately why he had to look back. After the Molenberg I heard from my teammates that they all had a gap, so then I had to check how big that gap was", he winks;

Twice thirteenth, then we can say that Teunissen's legs are doing well. 'And it was, it certainly wasn't disappointing. We can go on with that in itself. I have trained forty hours less than normal in the last month and a half, so then I can hope that there is still some margin somewhere. But we'll see.

Leader Biniam Girmay was a bit disappointing on Saturday, Teunissen also saw. He said he was good, so I positioned him for the Muur. Then he dropped out, so then I had to sprint myself. But I did expect more of it, yes.' The man from Eritrea had a much better start on Sunday, but was felled by a crash in the final straight and thus crossed the finish line in Kuurne, dented and scraped, in last place;

There is little contact between Girmay and Teunissen outside the races, the Limburger states. 'He doesn't have WhatsApp in Africa, so I don't actually speak to him when he's there. So I actually only saw him for the first time before the Omloop and after Kuurne he also flies back home, so I don't really see him then either. Around the races it's also very hectic, so it's not like we have conversations then about how things are really going. You might have time for that in three weeks of Tour de France, but not really now.' Intermarché-Wanty stated, however, that it was looking for a Belgian accommodation for Girmay. 'But I've also been hearing that for two years now, so I'm curious to see when that will actually happen,' Teunissen smiled.

Still, the results in the Flemish races are not forthcoming, even though the man from Africa is the sign of the team. When we confront Teunissen about this, we hear a slight elevation in his voice. Whether the expectations are too high? That's best to ask yourself. We don't say he has to win ten races in a year. Like last year, then he fell out of the Tour of Flanders with a concussion. There's nothing you can do about that, you know. So there are several factors that come into play: some of them you can't control, but some of them you can. And so we tackle those, with hope for improvement," he concludes;