Tobias Lund Andresen powers to 5th in Fossano reduced sprint finish

After two days for the climbers and GC riders, the sprinters would possibly get their first chance to take success on Monday afternoon with the finish in Fossano. However, some hills in the finale could possibly tempt the attackers or those looking to make it difficult for the pure sprinters.

It was a calm start to proceedings with no real breakaway forming and the peloton cruising along, before the speed ramped up ahead of the intermediate sprint. Going through the sprint point the pace was high and a group of 23 riders formed out front with Kevin Vermaerke and Tobias Lund Andresen representing Team dsm-firmenich PostNL. Their gap quickly extended to one minute and 30 seconds before a frantic chase followed from the peloton and things were eventually stitched back together at 40 kilometres to go.

The team then came together and gathered around Fabio Jakobsen for the possible sprint finish. Keeping a good position at the front on the right hand side of the road, the hills started to come thick and fast in the finale. Nonetheless, Jakobsen had Vermaerke, Lund Andresen and Romain Bardet alongside him as they hit the last climb with four kilometres remaining. An infernal pace was set and Jakobsen dug deep but had to relinquish the bunch near the top, giving the call over the radio for Lund Andresen to go for it. Coming into the finale, Vermaerke and Bardet helped Lund Andresen, who then chose a good wheel to follow inside the last kilometre. Charging towards the front, the rider in front of Lund Andresen swung out at just inside 300 metres to go, so the young Dane had to launch his sprint early – to make sure that he didn’t get swamped from behind. Showing tremendous power, Lund Andresen almost held on to the finish line but got passed in the last 50 metres, ultimately taking a strong fifth place with the team.

Speaking at the finish Lund Andresen expressed: “I felt good today. It was pretty easy in the beginning in the bunch when there was no breakaway. We just had to stay in front for the intermediate sprint as we thought a group might go there, and it did. It was good that Kevin and I were there so we could be in front of the facts and not on the back foot. Once we were brought back we then got together around Fabio to prepare for the sprint. In the end, Fabio didn’t quite have the legs on the climb so we decided to go for me in the finish. Fifth is a nice result in my first Grand Tour but I felt like it could have been even more today. I think we have shown that we are riding well together and are one of the teams that are sticking together in the finals, so I think we can get even more good results in the days to come.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “It was a pretty easy start and everyone can switch off if you’re not careful, but I’m actually really happy as we had marked the sprint point as a place where a team could maybe launch a big attack. In the end there were 23 guys up the road and we had Tobi and Kevin in there, so we had an attacking option and a sprint option to play so that was nice. Coming into the final I think Fabio did a really good job but he was just a bit on the limit and dropped on that final climb near the top. He gave a really clear command on the radio of ‘Tobi go for it’ and then Tobi did a really good job. He had to open it at around 250 metres to go because if he waited at that moment then he would have got swamped, so he had to go for it. To get fifth place in his first ever sprint in a Grand Tour is a really respectable result and something we can build on.”