Dylan Groenewegen wins opening stage in Eneco Tour
Sep 19 2016 11:44 pm CET
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSDylan Groenewegen of Team LottoNL-Jumbo is the first leader in the Eneco Tour after winning the opening stage's mass sprint.
The stage, with start and finish in the Frisian city of Bolsward, saw a group of five escape early on the day: Matteo Bono (Lampre-Merida), Brian van Goethem (Roompot-Oranje Peloton), Laurens de Vreese (Astana), Bert van Lerberghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Frederick Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).
The five were given some space by the peloton but their advantage was never much bigger than four minutes and the escapees were caught at about three kilometers from the finish.
In the final sprint, Groenewegen defeated some of the world's top sprinters to take his first ever UCI WorldTour victory. Nacer Bouhanni of Cofidis came in second ahead of new European champion Peter Sagan.
The top five was completed by Norwegians Edvald Boasson Hagen and Alexander Kristoff while Marcel Kittel only managed a ninth position.
As result of the win, Groenewegen takes the first leader's jersey. Bouhanni follows the Dutchman at four seconds, just ahead of Backaert and De Vreese who both collected bonification seconds in intermediate sprints.
