Easy on paper, but those who follow local Dutch cycling scene closer are well aware a flat course can only mean one thing - never ending day of echelons. And that's precisely what riders get, and even more at the on-going ZLM Tour (2.1). Saturday's stage was one of those days, where peloton spent most of the day trying to keep the pack together in face of continuous attacks.
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL didn't hide its intention to control the stage on a local circuit in Roosendaal aiming to sprint with Casper van Uden. The Dutch speedster already won the second stage of the race 48 hours earlier and was daring for more.
Most of the team was spent earlier during the stage, meaning the final step was up to Van Uden to make mostly alone, trying to use the improvised sprint trains of other teams in the chaotic finish. The 22-year-old found himself in his own element, comfortably outsprinting Simon Dehairs (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Giovanni Lonardi (Team Polti Kometa), entering top 10 of the general classification thanks to bonifications in the finish ahead of the last stage.
"It was a hectic day today with the wind but the boys did a really good job keeping me towards the front and I didn’t miss a split because of that. In the final they chased full gas to catch the break and luckily we did, so I am happy to give them another win after their hard work throughout the day and I am ready now for the final stage," Van Uden said in a press release.
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