Eneco Tour: Mick van Dijke nets maiden pro win as Victor Campenaerts moves into race lead on breathless stage 3

After a breathless day of racing, with groups split all over the road, Mick van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) took the first professional win of his career from the breakaway on stage 3 of the Eneco Tour in Watersley.

The Dutch rider won ahead of new race leader Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike), after the pair bridged across to the original break in the last 33km, before getting away as the lead duo in the last 18km, and battling out the uphill sprint for the win.

Jonas Rutsch (Lotto Intermarché) and Pierre Thierry (TotalEnergies) survived from the early break to finish third and fourth, with Wessel Mouris (Unibet Rose Rockets) not far behind and jumping up to second overall as a result of his efforts.

Pre-stage race leader Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek) tried valiantly to defend the orange jersey, but dropped several times as racing heated up over the undulating Watersley circuit, eventually losing more than a minute and a half and the jersey.

Campenaerts now leads overall by 15 seconds from Mouris, with Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) sat third overall on a 30-second deficit. The orange jersey will be decided this weekend over two punchy stages to the Col du VAM and Arnhem.

"It's the first one. Finally, I'm chasing it already for five and a half years, so I'm super happy," said Van Dijke, then confirming that it was no gift from Campenaerts in the finale, but a result of one rider going for GC and the other the stage win.

"I don't know his name, but the French guy [Thierry] was not pulling anymore, and I said to Campy, 'If he doesn't pull, I won't pull'; then he attacked, and I had to go a little bit deep to catch him, but I managed to."

"We are big friends; Campy was riding for GC, so I was not allowed to pull. I told him that, and if I helped him a little bit, he did most of the work. Then in the end, he went full, and I also went full."

Constant attacks cause splits all over the road

As a tough 110.5km route from Sittard to Watersley welcomed the remaining riders on race day four at the Eneco Tour, a four-rider break found themselves up the road after two laps of the circuit: Rutsch, Thierry, Jesse Kramer (BEAT CC p/b Saxo), and Rick Ottema (EEW-VDK Cyclingteam)

With 33km to go, four became seven as Hartthijs de Vries (Unibet Rose Rockets), Van Dijke, and Campenaerts attacked across the gap, with the latter's presence – having started the day just 29 seconds down on Söderqvist – forcing Lidl-Trek to chase in the peloton with two reps of the four hills still to come.

With 30km to go, Soudal-QuickStep started to accelerate, first with Tim Merlier, who was setting up an attack for Pepijn Reinderink. Quickly, Söderqvist found himself going backwards and struggling, but the riders at the front of the peloton began to mark each other as no one was able to get away.

The break started to fracture with the peloton breathing down their necks on the fourth and penultimate time up the Windraak, but the five who remained in front maintained their lead of just under 25 seconds heading into the last lap.

As Söderqvist was fully dropped in the last 20km, struggling to hold the wheels, Campenaerts started making his bid for the overall lead in front, taking the maximum six bonus seconds at the Red Bull KM and then attacking with 18km to go from the break.

Van Dijke was able to go with the Belgian, making it a leading duo in front of the first chase group containing fourth-place on GC Mouris, 21 seconds back, a second group containing Fisher-Black at 43 seconds back, and the peloton containing Söderqvist back at 1:01 heading into the final 10km.

With racing split all over the road, Fisher-Black launched an attack into the last 5.5km, but he was followed by Menno Huising (Visma-Lease a Bike) and the rest of the chasing group he was already in. Soon after, the Kiwi moved across the road and caused Huising – who was looking back at the group – to crash out of the chase.

They made no real impression on the leading duo, though; he entered the final kilometre after Campenaerts had done the lion's share of the work. Van Dijke won the uphill sprint for his maiden success, with the rest of the GC hopefuls coming home behind new orange jersey Campenaerts in dribs and drabs.

Results

The road season might be at an end, but Cyclingnews isn't slowing down. Subscribe for unlimited access to our comprehensive news coverage, industry-leading CN Labs testing, expert columnists, and so much more. Plus, the Cyclingnews app means you can stay up-to-date wherever you go! Join today.