ZLM Tour: Casper van Uden powers away from sprint field to win stage 2

Casper van Uden (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) won the opening road stage of the ZLM Tour in Wissenkerke, coming out on top in the mass bunch sprint finish to score his third win of the season.

The Dutchman beat Gleb Syritsa (Astana Qazaqstan) and Gerben Thijssen (Intermarché-Wanty) into second and third place with a clever move to go long at 200 metres to go.

Van Uden accelerated away from his rivals after hitting the front heading through a late kink in the road in the closing straight to take DSM’s 10th win of 2024.

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Rune Herregodts (Intermarché-Wanty) remains in the race lead following his stage 1 time trial win, with the Belgian retaining his 12-second lead over Tim van Dijke (Visma-Lease A Bike). With six bonus seconds for second place on stage 2, Syritsa moves level on time with Van Dijke in third place.

The second stage would be the second-longest of the five-day race, measuring in at 193.8km, though the pan-flat day posed few difficulties for the riders even if it was run from Middelburg to Wissenkerke, close to the winds of the North Sea.

The six-man break of the day stood little chance of staying away on what was always going to be a day for the sprinters, though Samuele Zoccarato (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè), Victor Vercouillie (Flanders Baloise), Bram Dissel (Beat), Jelte Krijnsen (Parkhotel Valkenburg), Max Croonen (VolkerWessels), and Guillaume Visser (Diftar) all got out into the move.

Having come together at the 65km to go mark, the group would earn a maximum advantage of four minutes, though the gap was never going to stay so large as the sprint squads went to work behind.

DSM were joined up front by Visma and Intermarché in making the pace behind the breakaway, which survived well into the final. Racing into the final 10km, the move continued to hold a 30-second lead, though they'd be brought back in time for the closing sprint.

There, it was DSM which set things up for Van Uden as the 22-year-old second-year pro was able to jump early and steal a march on his rivals, shooting to a clear victory some way ahead of the rest. Further back, Syritsa and Thijssen crossed the line neck-and-neck to round out the podium, with a photo finish separating the duo.

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