Tom Pidcock did not go into the opening weekend looking for perfection, but he nevertheless regretted a series of mistakes.

The 22-year-old Ineos Grenadiers rider, who admitted to several mistakes after Saturday's Omloop Het Niusblad, also made a mistake in Sunday's Krune Brusselkoorn.

Pidcock, who had taken advantage of the race on the new climb over the Walloon border with 80km to go, was easily discarded from the 17-man lead group just before the cobbles of the Bierboststraat with 35km to go.

He explained that Movistar's Ivan Garcia Cortina was accelerating when Jumbo Visma's Tige Benoot opened up a gap.

"It was a small mistake on my part. Teige passed me from behind braking and I didn't react. I let him take over. It was my mistake," Pidcock told Cycling News. [But there was a silver lining. Pidcock felt he was a marked man in the pack. As a result, his absence sparked a new level of cooperation, with teammate Honatan Narvaez breaking away and eventually narrowing the field to three riders, who were caught by the pack 100 meters before the finish.

"Ultimately, I think it helped the breakaway and helped Johnny. Johnny got within 100 meters of the finish line, but if I was still there ...... I mean, after I was gone, they were running at full throttle, so if I had been there, maybe they would have caught me earlier."

Pidcock must have been disgusted with Benoot's appearance. The Jumbo newcomer was instrumental in Wout Van Aert's victory in Omloop, which Pidcock felt was one of the mistakes he made on Saturday. Late in the Omloop, Pidcock regretted hesitating when Van Aert attacked before Vosberg.

"For several reasons, I made too many mistakes this weekend," Pidcock told Cycling News.

"Certainly, I'm still learning, learning to lead a team, etc."

That said, Pidcock may be talented and precocious, but he did not come to Belgium this weekend looking for a win. The real work begins next Saturday at Strade Bianche, but for now he is taking heart that he spent two days on the front line as a member of the young and inexperienced Ineos Grenadiers Classic group.

"In terms of how we raced as a team, I think today was pretty impressive. We had a young team to race with and the improvement from yesterday was phenomenal."

"It was phenomenal to race with a young team and see how much we improved from yesterday.

Thus, just as in his debut in last year's Classic, he did not get the same attention as he did in his debut in the Omloop, where he attacked and finished third in the Kuhne, but he did not think he needed to worry.

"It's always difficult and not right to say 'the result doesn't matter'. For me, the next weekend is more important," Pidcock said.

"To be honest, I felt this opening weekend was on a much higher level than last year. We had three of the best sprinters in the world today, whereas last year we didn't have a top group sprinter.