Keisse wins Ronde Van Zeeland Seaports

A day after taking the win at the Handzame Classic in Belgium, Etixx-QuickStep swept the first four places at the Ronde Van Zeeland Seaports in the Netherlands.

Belgian Iljo Keisse took the win on Saturday ahead of teammates Niki Terpstra and Lukasz Wisniowski. The team's Yves Lampaert won the sprint from a chasing group to take fourth.

“I’m so happy with this win,” Keisse said. “What a great result today. It’s a really nice favor from Niki Terpstra and Lukasz Wisniowski to let me win. The hard work I did in the past years finally paid off and I’m thankful my teammates thought of me in this way.”

Only 20 riders finished the UCI 1.1 race in the Netherlands, which took place in cold, wet, windy conditions.

The winning trio attacked out of a big group with 100km to go. They built a 1:50 advantage over a small group of riders left chasing, including Lampaert and teammates Guillaume Van Keirsbulck, Nikolas Maes and Matteo Trentin.

“To attack with three riders at 100km to go in a race is never an easy decision to make, but thanks to our collaboration as teammates we made it.,” Keisse said. “When it comes to teamwork, this is a perfect example.”

With a pace that whittled the remaining field down to 20, the leaders built an advantage of almost a five minutes going into the final two laps of the race. The chasers behind split into small groups, with Lampaert in the first chase group alongside Edward Theuns (Topsport Vlaanderen- Baloise) going into the finale.

In the end, Keisse got the win, the 18th for Etixx-QuickStep so far this year and the second in two days.

“For the team we decided that Iljo Keisse could win this race,” said director Tom Steeles. “We were actually in a luxurious position. We only needed to choose who finishes where on the podium, so the decision wasn’t hard to make.

“As a sport director you can only dream of a scenario like this. I must say that they didn’t just get this win as a gift. They really fought hard for this scenario to happen.”

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