Re his ride in the Course du Raisin in Belgium on August 21
"It was my first one-day race with big hitters. There were guys like Breukink, Tchmil and Sunderland riding. The break went and normally that would have been the end of it but I saw that Tchmil was still in the buch and I went with him when he attacked on a false flat. I felt OK but at one point he put his boot down and we were doing 65kph on the flat. I didn't go through at that point.
"We got across but after 120km the bunch started coming back and just as all the cars came out of the gap I punctured. The bunch went past but when I got back the winning break had well and truly gone. When I changed the wheel the race was going flat out."
1. Planckaert (Bel) 165 km in 3.22.00 2. Meijs (Ned) 3. Van der Meer (Ned), 4. Mattan (Bel) 5. Verstrepen (Bel) 0.11
Knetemann chose 6 riders from the Rabobank team and 5 men from TVM. The provisional squad is:
Danny Nelissen, Michael Boogerd, Erik Breukink, Erik Dekker, Aart Vierhouten, Koos Moerenhout (all Rabobank), Maarten den Bakker, Bart Voskamp, Tristan Hoffman, Niels van der Steen, Servais Knaven (all TVM), and Eddy Bouwmans, Wim van de Meulenhof, Raymond Meijs en Davy Dubbeldam (Foreldorado/Golff).