Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) won stage 1 of the Eneco Tour in a bunch sprint in Bolsward to claim the first leader’s jersey of the race and further highlight his credentials ahead of the World Championships in Doha next month.
The Dutch champion had already show his form at the recent Tour of Britain and he was on song again on home roads on the Eneco Tour’s opening day, beating a roll call of Worlds contenders in the keenly-contested bunch finish.
In a blanket finish, Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) was narrowly beaten into second after making up ground in the final 50 metres, while world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) – who also came from a long way back – had to settle for third place on the stage. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) took fourth ahead of fellow countryman Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), while Italian champion Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo).
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Neither André Greipel (Lotto Soudal) nor Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep), who are vying for leadership of the German team in Qatar, made any real impact in the finale. Kittel seemed poorly-placed and sat up before the sprint began while Greipel, whose team had been prominent in setting up the grand finale, could only manage 9th in what was an admittedly fraught finish.
Though the final sprint was fought out on a wide finishing straight, competition for places at the front was still at a premium and no one team managed to bring much order to proceedings on the last lap of the finishing circuit, where Danny van Poppel (Sky) was among the riders to come down in a crash with 15 kilometres remaining.
Lotto Soudal, Cofidis and FDJ were all prominent in the finale, though it was Katusha, riding in support of Alexander Kristoff, who led into the final kilometre, where – despite the wide roads – space was at such a premium that some riders were forced to simply veer (safely) onto the grass verge.
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