Roosen wins Dutch men's road title

Timo Roosen (Jumbo-Visma)  was crowned Dutch national road race champion on Sunday after a late solo attack.

Sjoerd Bax (Metec-Solarwatt) won the sprint for second from a small chasing group, edging out Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Fenix) into third. 

Roosen made his race-winning attack in the final few kilometres, where he capatalised on the numerical advantage of his Jumbo-Visma team in the small lead group to slip away.

His rivals did not respond immediately and looked at each other to chase, allowing Roosen to gain an advantage that he managed to hold to the finish.

It’s a huge result for the 28-year-old, who had only achieved a few small wins in a career spent mostly as a domestique at Jumbo-Visma.

Despite taking victory, Roosen did not appear to be the strongest rider on the day. Bax, Riesebeek and Martijn Tusveld had all distanced him on the final ascent of the tricky, cobbled climb that was tackled each lap of the race’s circuit in Drenthe. 

However, what he did had in his advantage were multiple Jumbo-Visma riders all able to assist him. After being dropped on that climb, Olav Kooij and Mike Teunissen were still strong enough to work together to all rejoin the leaders, which they managed to do with about 3km to go.

Upon rejoining the lead group, the pace slackened, providing an opportunity to slip out of the front that Roosen smartly took. 

It was an action-packed stage from the get-go, as a strong seventeen-man group went up the road, featuring many of the riders who would feature in the finale, including Riesebeek and Bak.

Then, on just the second lap of the course, defending champion Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) burst into life by attacking out of the peloton with seven other riders.

The attack shaped the race, as the chasers gained a significant advantage over the peloton, but Van der Poel himself turned out not to be on a great day, and was distanced by the others as the group began to splinter.

Among those seven riders initially with him were three Jumbo-Vismas, who set about setting the pace, despite having Dylan Groenewegen up the road. It turned out to be the correct tactical ploy, as Groenewegen struggled to keep up with and was eventually dropped by the likes of Riesebeek in the lead group.

On what was an absorbing, ever-fluctuating race, groups were constantly breaking up and new ones reforming, as riders attacked out of the chasing group, and others dropped out of the leading group.

Ultimately, a group of seven leaders made it to the last ascent of the climb together: Riseebeek, Bax, Tusveld, Boy Van Poppel (Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert), plus the Jumbo-Visma trio of Roosen, Kooij and Teunissen.

Riseebeek might have been strongest on the climb, but it was Roosen who ended up taking victory. He’ll now succeed Van der Poel as custodian of the red white and blue Dutch national champions jersey.