Dylan Groenewegen won the Heistse Pijl. Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s sprinter beat a small group during the Belgian one-day-race. Team-mates Timo Roosen, Robert Wagner and Tom Van Asbroeck escaped in a group that lasted until 1.5 kilometres to go.

“I was led out by the team to the foot of the final climb, so I was able to bridge to the first group,” Dylan Groenewegen said. “I came through the final turn in fourth position and started to sprint with 250 metres to go. It’s great to reward my team-mates' aggressive style of racing like this. It was a tough race with a cobbled climb that hurt. Because we had three in the leading group, the rest of the team was able to save energy.”

Team LottoNL-Jumbo was visible before that final kick as well. Paul Martens and Maarten Wynants rode aggressively during the first part of the race and Sep Vanmarcke was part of a breakaway of six riders early on. In the final part of the race, a leading group of 13 riders formed with Timo Roosen, Robert Wagner and Tom Van Asbroeck. They were caught on the final climb of the day.

First plan

“Sometimes everything goes to plan,” Sports Director Nico Verhoeven said. “Today, that was the story. We were part of every breakaway. Our first plan was to sprint with Dylan, but if that final breakaway was able to stay in front, Tom Van Asbroeck could have done it. Dylan saved his energy, during the whole race and was led out to the foot of that final climb eventually. That’s why he was able to finish it off. With only 1.5 kilometres to go, he noticed that his tyre was slowly getting soft, but he was able to reach the finish with it. A few minutes after the race, his tyre was flat. We were lucky.”

“With four kilometres to go, I hit a hole in the road quite hard,” Groenewegen explained. “I felt that my tyre was soft in the final 1.5 kilometres, but not too much to affect my sprint.”