The opening stage at Renewi Tour saw the peloton tackle a rolling 163 kilometre route from Riemst to Bilzen, and a slightly dragging uphill sprint finale. Things started in a traditional manner with a five rider break going clear, but on the narrow roads there was an air of nervousness amongst the peloton and unfortunately there were several crashes throughout the day. Firstly, John Degenkolb was involved in a spill which saw him have to fight to return to the bunch. Coming into the last 15 kilometres the break was caught and the team were well positioned at the front but a crash at the front-right of the peloton saw Nils Eekhoff and Alex Edmondson go down, with Bram Welten held up and having to dismount. Unfortunately Eekhoff, who was the team’s finisher on the the day, had to abandon the race due to the crash. In the end, with all of the bad luck the team couldn’t achieve a result on the stage with Frank van den Broek leading home the squad on the day.
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston said: “It was an unlucky day for us all round. First, we had John crash early in the stage which saw him suffering a little later on. Coming into the final we were setting up Nils but a crash in front of him took him and Alex out, with Bram also held up too. We quickly focused on just keeping Frank safe in the GC and seeing how far Fabio could come in a sprint that wasn’t ideal for him. In the end there was no result today for us but we will dust ourselves off and continue tomorrow.”
