Dylan Groenewegen sprinted to 10^th in the third stage of the Tour de France today. Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s sprinter was unable to re-find his position in the team’s lead out in the final kilometre. Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) won his second stage.

Before the third stage of the Tour de France, Dylan Groenewegen said that it was going to be important to stay together with his team-mates in the final kilometres of the stage. He succeeded in that aim up until the final kilometre.

“I lost the men for a while,” Groenewegen explained. “Timo Roosen almost crashed, everyone braked at that point, accept me. I passed our train on the right side and lost them. I wanted to take my position afterwards, but Alexander Kristoff (Team Katusha) boxed me in.

Improving

“I’m in the top 10, but I’m not quite happy with a tenth place. At least, we are improving and we did a good job as a team today. In the end, you need a little bit of luck as well. We don’t have to be scared that were not good enough. We are and we want to show it another time in this Tour de France.”

Robert Wagner shared in that conviction. “It went very well, actually,” the German added. “We came in the right moment, Timo Roosen delivered a very strong job and when we passed Dylan with one kilometre to go. I counted on him to be in my slipstream. He wasn’t, unfortunately.

“We’re pushing with a lot of sprint lead-outs and rode towards the finish line at 70 kilometres an hour. You have to stay focussed at the same time, and that’s difficult at such a pace. You barely hear anything and are full of adrenaline. You need a lot of luck and I’m convinced that Dylan will get his chance in this Tour de France.”

Manoeuvre

“I’ve seen a lot of good things today,” Sports Director Merijn Zeeman added. “A lot of things always happen in the bunch sprint, but I think that the team did a great job. Everyone fulfilled his tasks. There is one crucial moment when Timo had to make a manoeuvre and Dylan lost the lead-out. At that moment, Sep Vanmarcke and Robert wanted to pick him up, a fight for the right position started between Dylan and Kristoff, and Dylan didn’t come out well. That’s a pity, because Dylan delivered a strong sprint, but came from too far behind.”