Netherlands Road Championships: Danny van Poppel pips Olav Kooij to road race victory in photo finish bunch sprint

In a narrow photo finish, Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) won the men's road race at the Dutch national championships, just beating pre-race favourite Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) to the title.

Kooij finished second by a matter of centimetres, with outgoing champion Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco AlUla) finishing third.

Kooij was a heavy favourite for the win, with the race expected to finish in a bunch sprint, but despite Visma's work all day long, Van Poppel – usually a lead-out man – just had the speed to take the win.

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Despite a number of attacks and counter-attacks on the final lap, after the break had been caught and all the way up until the final kilometre, the race culminated in the expected bunch sprint, only not with the expected winner.

The first 70km of the race saw various groups get away and then get brought back fairly quickly. With 90km to go, a group of eight got a more substantial gap, but the sprinters' teams were keen to keep things controlled all race and not open up the door for an upset.

Visma-Lease a Bike and Picnic PostNL were the main teams with sprint interests, and Picnic put a rider in the break, meaning much of the responsibility fell on the shoulders of Visma. They kept the gap very small, but not quite closing it.

The small gap led to some counter-attacks as the race entered the fourth and final 40km lap, led by Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek) and Dylan van Baarle (Visma-Lease a Bike), which spelled the end for the break, though they were also soon brought back.

Mike Teunissen (XDS Astana) and Tim van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) tried a move in the last 25km, joined by Axel van der Tuuk (Metec-Solarwatt p/b Mantel), but this was brought back with 15km to go.

The last 15km then saw some more moves, including from Bauke Mollema (Lidl-Trek), and a last ditch attempt from Martijn Rasenberg (Parkhotel Valkenburg), but everything was back together for the final kilometre for a fairly messy sprint.

Visma-Lease a Bike appeared fatigued by the work they'd done all day long, and Van Poppel clearly got the better of this, forcing Kooij to settle for second in the nationals for the second year in a row.

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