Eneco Tour: Groenewegen wins stage 1

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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).

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.

Despite the red guard's efforts, however, it was Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) who opened the sprint with a powerful effort, but Groenewegen timed his effort perfectly to emerge from the tumult and claim the win ahead of the fast-closing Bouhanni and Sagan, who, by contrast, had been forced to make up too much ground.

"The team worked well to help me get this win," Groenewegen said. "It's a very important win, I took it in front of the best sprinters in the world. Winning a big sprint like that is special.

"This is a WorldTour race in my home country too and so winning feels really, really nice. We worked really hard together as a team today and in the end we did it. I'm very happy."

Early break

With so many top line sprinters in the field, and with such a flat parcours before them, the opening day of the Eneco Tour was never going to yield anything other than a bunch finish, but five willing attackers looked to upset the odds early on and stuck gamely to their task for the duration.

The stage was animated by a five-man move featuring Matteo Bono (Lampre-Merida), Laurens De Vreese (Astana), Bert Van Lerberghe (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Brian Van Goethem (Roompo Oranje Peloton) and Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), but they could only build up a maxium lead of 3:40 as the sprinters' teams struck up a working alliance behind to keep tabs on their lead.

Lotto Soudal, LottoNL-Jumbo, Cofidis, Orica-BikeExchange and Etixx-QuickStep were all happy to contribute a rider to the effort for much of the stage, meaning that the escapees were kept on a relatively tight leash for much of the afternoon.

With 50 kilometres to go, the gap was a very manageable 2:30 and the bunch slowly set about making the catch thereafter. The escapees remained clear until the so-called "Golden Kilometre," the troika of intermediate sprints with 20 kilometres to go, however, meaning that they divided the bonus seconds on offer between them,

Backaert won the first two to claim 6 bonus seconds in total, while De Vreese took two third places and a first to rack up 5 seconds of his own, but after reaching the finish line for the penultimate time with 17.4 kilometres to go, their lead was down to just 1:11.

Lotto Soudal were prominent on the final lap of the finishing circuit, where Danny van Poppel was among the fallers, and though the escapees were eventually swept up with three kilometres to go.

A bunch sprint was inevitable, but with so many fast man on show, the outcome was anything put. The 23-year-old Groenewegen showed his increasing comfort in such exalted company to claim the win.

In the general classification, Groenewegen is 4 seconds clear of Bouhanni and Backaert, with De Vreese a further second back in fourth. The race continues on Tuesday with a 9.4-kilometre time trial in Breda that ought to see another Dutch champion, Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), to the fore.

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