Yentl Vandevelde upsets sprinters in stage 1 of ZLM Tour: "For this to happen is really unbelievable"

Yentl Vandevelde. Only hardcore cycling geeks were familiar with this name before stage 1 of ZLM Tour. But nothing will be the same after today, as the Belgian rider of TDT-Unibet surprised everyone, including himself, and won the stage with a late attack from the early breakaway that held off the peloton by mere meters.

The Belgian rode away 1.6 km from the finish from a leading group of seven that wouldn't get caught by peloton eventually. “For this to happen is really unbelievable. I've had some bad luck in recent months, but this is what you dream of. We make history with the team. Hopefully that's not the last time. This is really a very fat fish.”

Vandevelde only started to believe in with less than ten kilometers from the finish. “I had good legs, but normally it is always a bunch sprint. We all had something left at the front and when we heard that we still had a minute at the end, I thought: 'we can hold on.'”

For 22-year old Vandevelde these are unbelievable moments in his career. The young Belgian never got close to winning UCI race, let alone a .Pro level one. It's also biggest success for the new Dutch team TDT-Unibet.