We know the result but explore Xandro’s second entry in the captains log to learn how one pin can unpick a whole race plan in a moment.

The plan when we went into Liège was to go for the maximum result as possible with Tom. We all believed that he was able to compete and to finish on the podium or top five.

When you know Tadej will be at the start, it is not easy to make a specific plan for how or when you will make this happen, due to the way he & his team influences the whole race. The plan needs to be reactive to the situation, ensuring you are always in the right position.

Our tactic was to bring Tom & Quinten into the best position possible for each of the climbs, including the decisive climb of Côte de La Redoute. We know this is where the race is decided every year.

This year was a very unique edition. All of a sudden 35 guys are up the road, including Bernal & Remco. They both had a teammate in the group who were pulling hard to take as much of an advantage as possible on the bunch with Tadej. This breakaway was the reason why it was so hard on the first climb of Col de la Haussire were the bunch gets reduced to around 40 guys. We were there with 3, Tom, Chirs [Harper] & myself.

There had already been a hard pace all day, but when Tim Wellens opens his effort and we came to the big road following this climb, we saw that this bunch would go to the next climbs together.

This was okay until Tom had a puncture from a pin in his back wheel. He was in my wheel at the time and I could hear he was busy trying to remove the pin with a bottle, trying to knock it out. I tried also but we were not able to get it out.

This meant he had to change bike and the pace had meant it was all a mess behind, there was big gap to the cars so was not able to change it quickly. In the end he was really far back and I waited for him to the make the maximum effort to close the gap to the bunch with Tadej.

However, once we were within 15 seconds, through the town of Vielsalm I hit a hole and had a flat tyre also. I had to stop to change my wheel and was no longer able to pull in Tom’s group to try and close this gap. Sjoerd [Bax] dropped back from the first group to help also, but he had already had a hard day in the break so in the end was not possible to close the gap.

It was a day of bad luck for us. We were happy with Quinten [Hermans] and Sjoerd in the front group, but the bad luck with Tom behind, you think what could have been on this day.

The rest of the race I could only learn from hearing over the radio, Chris & Quinten did the maximum possible to get a result, which is never easy at Liege. When you see that this year’s edition was 10 minutes faster than last year, it tells you enough about how hard this day was.

The biggest difference for sure this year was the different tactic some of the bigger names used to try and take the race to Tadej. By going really far in the breakaway is atypical, not something you normally see.

Outside of this the situation was quite the same as the previous 3. Hard pace on all the climbs lead by UAE, Tadej attacking on La Redoute, only [Paul] Seixas could follow this year, but the end result is the same.

Not our best day, not the result where we were hoping for and where we came for. But yeah, as cycling is also a technical sport, this can happen. This time it's a pin from somebody's bid number maybe which destroyed our whole race.