"Tell that to Ralph Denk" - Danny van Poppel sends message to team boss after unexpected Dutch title

The 2025 Dutch Championships were designed to please the fast men of peloton with a flat 160-kilometer course in Ede. No force was able to prevent the expected bunch sprint and there we found a surprising winner with Danny van Poppel sprinting past both big favourites Olav Kooij and Dylan Groenewegen.

"I have learned to stay calm. This is great," Van Poppel is overjoyed. "I came here to win and nothing else. You have to have self-confidence and I still can't really believe it. I haven't participated for five years and thought: I'll try again."

There's not much time for celebrations though. Van Poppel is heading to Tour de France in his new jersey next week. "We'll have to see about that. In any case, I'm going to have a nice evening, I'm sure of that," Van Dijke grins.

On French roads, Van Poppel will be again leading out Belgian sprinter Jordi Meeus. Or maybe should he get his own chance? "Tell that to Ralph (Denk, ed.)," grinned the winner.

It's been already mentioned that Van Poppel owes a lot of his victory to the 'lead-out' he received from opponent Olav Kooij. The 23-year-old winner of two Giro stages last month simply lacked a bit to finish off his long sprint after 3 hours of full throttle racing.

"It was a fair sprint, I think," Kooij mourned after the finish at the NOS. "My legs were a bit empty, although I still squeezed everything out of them. I felt Danny coming and unfortunately the finish line came just too late. I don't think I did anything wrong, just a fair winner," expressed the Dutchman.

The Visma | Lease a Bike star is not overly concerned about this outcome when he looks at the race from broader perspective. "He is in a different build-up towards the Tour, you could see that towards this race. He has a super good level and my tank is a bit empty. For me it is good to rest now and build up again. For him it is super nice that he becomes champion."

The defender of victory from last year, Dylan Groenewegen, was not too far off the victory either. But the sprinter of Jayco AlUla made few tactical mistakes in the final and ended up closed on the barriers, sprinting only to a third place. A result that's not to his liking.

"I'm definitely not happy," Groenewegen was visibly upset. "I like winning and I already had bronze. Gold too, but I think I had the legs to win. Third place doesn't make you very happy. I thought: I'll go via the left, immediately after the bend. But then I had to brake hard."