For Groenewegen it is his ninth victory of the season and it is Team Jumbo Visma’s twenty-seventh.

The stage, that started in Bredene in Belgium, initially seemed under control for Team Jumbo-Visma. A leading group of four got a maximum of three minutes and it all seemed to go well for the team of Nico Verhoeven. In ’s Heerenhoek, Groenewegen crashed hard. With the help of his teammates he was able to return quickly and reward the work of his team.

“It was a textbook sprint, but I would rather not have crashed”, Groenewegen said. “But that is also part of cycling. Luckily I only have some superficial wounds, nothing serious. The team worked very hard today for both the sprint and the classification. I have to thank the boys, because we had to ride really fast to get back to the front. We did it at the right time and I was able to finish it off nicely for them. That is extra beautiful. This is a confirmation that after a hard altitude block we are heading in the right direction towards the Tour. The ZLM Tour is a great race to further fine-tune the leadout.”