Team dsm-firmenich PostNL claim Men’s program’s brilliant 17th win of the season with Tobias Lund Andresen in Denmark sprint

Photo Credit: Dan Møller

Following on from their nail-biting TTT win on stage one, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL rode brilliantly once again and continued their great form at the Tour of Denmark, controlling the stage before setting up Tobias Lund Andresen who surged to the win in the uphill sprint finish.

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL worked brilliantly as a unit throughout the stage with the dual goal of keeping their GC placings safe, but with a view of setting up the fast-finishing Lund Andresen for the finale. The break rode well together however and with the stage win potentially hanging in the balance, it required a strong chase from Alex Edmondson initially to keep things in check as they approached the local lap circuit before Warren Barguil took over. From there, Frank van den Broek and Sean Flynn helped to keep the guys safe before Nils Eekhoff did a phenomenal last pull as final lead-out man, creating a high tempo on the rise before the line to string things out. Lund Andresen expertly followed the wheels and chose his moment to launch perfectly, coming around the opposition with a devastating kick, where he could sit up and celebrate the team’s second win of the race so far; and the Men’s program’s 17th of the season.

An elated Lund Andresen said: “It was a really good day. We stayed calm from the start and didn’t work too early; when we saw it might be close, we also then invested in bringing the break back. There were small roads throughout the day and the guys did really well to keep me in front as there were a lot of crashes in the bunch. Coming into the final we were a bit far back but really trusted each other and made our move up when we needed to. I’m really happy to be able to finish it off for the team today.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Roy Curvers added: “It was a really nice win today again from the guys. Ahead of the race we said that we wanted to go for stage victories with Tobi in the sprints. Today on a finish like this, it is normally something that suits Tobi the best, but with the likes of De Lie here in the race then we have a world class sprinter as our opposition who also finds his favoured parcours on a finish like this. We knew that everyone had to be on the top of their game and set up the sprint as good as possible. We took responsibility in the chase and then in the final laps the guys kept calm but focused. Even when at one point when it looked like they were too far back they kept trusting each other in being able to make the move forward. I think we came around the last corner in a good place. With Nils a little bit more forward we could influence the pace to make sure that no one could attack from behind. Tobi just went all out when he saw the line and today that was enough for the win. It was a really, really nice one from the whole team.”