A sprint opportunity awaited the peloton this afternoon at the Renewi Tour with a flat 185-kilometre long parcours from Blankenberge to the now traditional finishing circuit in Ardooie with its technical and twisting nature. It was a typically controlled sprint finish, with the peloton keeping the breakaway on a tight gap and slowly reeling them in throughout the afternoon. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL aimed to bring Fabio Jakobsen into position to go for it in the finale, although their engine room was diminished or feeling the effects from the opening day crash. With the break caught, the team held the left hand side of the road and tried to fight their way through but on the narrow streets it was hard to move up, and Jakobsen was never really in a position to open up his sprint in the finale.
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston expressed: “We tried to use our resources in the best way possible today, as of course we missed John and Nils for the lead-out and engine room after the crash on the opening day of the race, and Alex is still suffering from the effects of his fall too. Coming into the last seven kilometre we were in an ok position, sitting well together as a group. On the big road we were on the left side and were looking for that space to move up. In the end it didn’t open up though, so the guys looked to bring Fabio into the sprint bubble but we never got him far enough forward to make the sprint count. We have another chance tomorrow to do better.”