Day two of “Opening Weekend” saw the peloton take on a blustery day out in Belgium with more cobbles and climbs on the menu at Kuurne – Brussel – Kuurne. It was an active and nervous race from the beginning with Pavel Bittner infiltrating one of the many failed early breakaway attempts for the team. In the end a five rider group went clear but with over 90 kilometres remaining the eventual race winning move was made and a trio forged on out front. With the Team dsm-firmenich PostNL riders scattered in various groups over the road, the team did well to remain calm and eventually they found each other as things regrouped behind the leaders. Coming into the lap circuit, the team was well to the fore and contributed to the chase to catch the three interlopers and set up a sprint for fourth place. It was a chaotic run-in with a crash around the final corner, but after some good positioning Nils Eekhoff was able to glide his way through the bunch and launched a strong sprint, pushing all the way to the line to take a fine fifth place finish on the day.
Eekhoff expressed: “The race was on for almost the whole day. For a long time there was no early break gone so the jumping kept on going. We were well represented in front to try to get in but in the end it wasn’t for us. We switched focus to be in a good position for Papins, steep and small climb. We were in an okay position but not good enough. I was able to go hard up the climb but there were some splits in front of me which cost some energy to get back Then I was just out of position for the next climb where 16 riders rode away. I always kept believing that a lot was still possible and stayed in a good position in the bunch. Once the other guys got to back to the first bunch they did a good job in keeping me safe and chasing the break. In the end we were sprinting for fourth place, where Pavel and John delivered me in a good position and I was able to sprint to a solid second place from the bunch. I’m satisfied with the legs today after being out with sickness. This is something we can build on and I’m looking forward to racing with this strong team on Tuesday at Le Samyn.”