Some teams came away from E3 Harelbeke reassured about their prospects for the Tour of Flanders next weekend, and many more emerged from the dress rehearsal aware that they need to work on their lines ahead of the big day. Team Sky fell into the second category, with highest finisher Luke Rowe´s 15th place a fair reflection of the collective´s muffled impact on the race. Once Tom Boonen forced the first selection on the Taaienberg with almost seventy kilometres to go, and his Quick-Step teammate Philippe Gilbert sparked the winning move shortly afterwards, Sky were always on the back foot. Rowe was the only Sky rider to finish in the main chasing group, which came home 52 seconds down on winner Greg Van Avermaet (BMC). `Some guys felt good, other guys didn`t feel great, but sometimes it`s about split seconds,` Sky directeur sportif Servais Knaven told Cyclingnews afterwards. `Sometimes you take decisions without thinking. And if you start thinking sometimes, then you`re already too late. But we all learn from it. And the next time we`ll try again.`ADVERTISEMENT Off the bike, it has been a turbulent spring for Team Sky. The squad is at the centre of a UK Anti-Doping inquiry into British Cycling, and some riders have questioned the tenability of Dave Brailsford`s position as manager. On the bike, however, the squad has enjoyed a hugely successful start to the campaign, winning Milan-San Remo, Strade Bianche and Paris-Nice in recent weeks. In that context, directeur sportif Servais Knaven was loath to label their E3 Harelbeke showing as a disappointment. `Disappointed is a big word,` Knaven said. `You always hope to have riders in the front. On the Taaienberg, we were still good. We had four guys up there. Then on the Boigneberg they went on shifts and we had [Gianni] Moscon in between the groups, but he was not good enough to get across and he blew. From that moment, we were always chasing behind and not really in the race. We knew from the Taaienberg, the bi ...
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