Axel Zingle takes opening sprint victory on stage 1 of 4 Jours de Dunkerque

Axel Zingle (Visma-Lease a Bike) earned the victory on the first day of 4 Jours de Dunkerque, taking advantage of an unorganised sprint train by Israel-Premier Tech in the closing 200 metres into Amiens.

Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic PostNL) trailed the Frenchman for second place while Stian Fredheim (Uno-X Mobility) grabbed third, keeping Classique Dunkerque winner Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) off the podium by one position.

A five-rider breakaway still had hopes to remain clear on the first passage of the finish line with 24km to go – Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Luca de Meester, Gil Gelders, Danny van der Tuuk, and Per Strand Hagenes. With 6.2km to go, their day ended, and the sprint teams went to work. However, Ackermann could not find the wheel of his lead-out man Jake Stewart and Zingle used the slipstream to score his first victory of the season.

Zingle crashed on Tuesday at Classique Dunkerque, a new 1.Pro race ahead of 4 Jours de Dunkerque stage race, and remnants of a tough day across northern France lingered with a left leg bandage.

He told French broadcasters after the race that he was happy to rebound from the crash and secure the leader's jersey, though the team was focused on individual stages rather than the GC.

"I'm not the fastest sprinter at the start, but I know I can position myself well in the final kilometers. Thankfully, everything went perfectly today. I'm incredibly happy with this win, especially after being involved in a crash at the finish yesterday," Zingle said after the finish in a team statement.

The five riders in the breakaway scooped up enough bonus points to position them directly behind Zingle in the GC standings, with Swift second on GC, two seconds back, and Hagenes third, three seconds back.

How it unfolded

This year marked the 69th edition of the 'Four Days of Dunkirk', and the first of five stages took place Wednesday between Sainte-Catherine and Amiens with 177.3km

The first of five categorised climbs hit in the opening 6.5km and there were no takers on a solid attack for an early breakaway. It was not until the approach to the next climbing section that a group of six pushed away from the peloton – Swift, Gelders, Hagenes, De Meester and Van der Tuuk accompanied by Joren Bloem (Unibet Tietema Rockets).

The group gained two minutes as they moved across the trio of climbs packed between just 13 kilometres, the intermediate sprint in Frémont serving as the launch 57.5km into the race for the first ascent to Ligny-sur-Canche. Bloem dropped away from the lead group after the climb.

The Boubers-sur-Canche followed and then the longest and steepest of the trio, at 1.4km and 5.4% average gradient, the Mochel-sur-Canche left 57km to the finish for the group of now five riders.

The gap began to fade as the lead group moved to the third and final intermediate sprint at Amiens just before the finish line, 24km remained across two more full circuits for the finish.

The riders in the break worked together on the penultimate circuit, the gap hovering around a minute, but teams like Uno-X Mobility and Israel-Premier Tech had other ideas, reeling them into peloton with just 6km to go.

The run to the line in the final kilometre was a bit messy, with three Israel-Premier Tech riders among the dozen riders near the front, but they were spread across the road. Zingle was the only Visma rider in the bunch, riding in eighth place. 

Once around a final left-hand bend to the straightaway, Zingle was still well back as Sam Watson (Ineos Grenadiers) and Alberto Dainese (Tudor) were in the line in front of him being towed by Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech). 

When Stewart looked around and moved away from the front of the race, Ackermann was not on his wheel, but Zingle, who punched his way across the final 75 metres for the victory.

Results

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