The wind was blowing once more in the Netherlands on Sunday for the final stage of the ZLM Tour. It made for a fast race with the final average speed for the day reaching over 49 kilometres per hour. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL were attentive from the off and made sure that nothing split early. The team were then well represented in a front peloton of around 40 riders but that was eventually brought back before things split for a second time. There, a group of 11 went clear and without any representation in it, the team took up the onus in the chase. Expertly bringing things back, the day was all set up for a sprint finish once more. Strong work by the whole team saw Casper van Uden well positioned going under the flamme rouge, but things stalled a little bit at the front and Van Uden got blocked a bit. At that moment stage winner Salby launched a daring early sprint and by the time Van Uden could get some space to open up his effort and come around some riders, it would only be for fourth place in the end.
Reflecting on the week Van Uden said: “I think we had a good week with the guys at the ZLM Tour. Pat started it off with a top ten in the prologue and then to get two wins and two fourth places is really good I think. We all worked really well together in the road stages. We showed that we were really strong together as a group and we all fought for it. I’m really happy and hopefully we can keep continuing like this.”
