Eight riders formed the escape of the day. The peloton did not give them much space. Their maximum lead was three minutes. After Remco Evenepoel and Victor Campenaerts went on the attack, the lead of the breakaway group increased rapidly.

The peloton broke into pieces and Eenkhoorn, Bouwman and Fisher-Black managed to slip into the first chasing group on behalf of Team Jumbo-Visma. They digested the three local laps with the crucial Berg Ten Houte well. Eenkhoorn eventually sprinted to tenth place, 28 seconds behind the day’s winner.

“It was grueling”, Eenkhoorn said. “In the beginning of the stage, the after-effects of my crash last Sunday played tricks on me. Fortunately, I got through it after that. It was a tough course. The next few days we will see if a good classification is possible for me. In tomorrow’s time trial we have to wait and see what it will be. We have several riders wo can do well in the rankings the coming days. I think we can look back on today with satisfaction.”

Sports director Maarten Wynants echoed those words. “It was a hectic stage. We did well today. The riders we expected up front did not disappoint. The three leaders simply could not be caught. In tomorrow’s time trial it’s important that the guys with classification ambitions hold on to the top of the rankings. In addition to the two sprint stages, we also want to show nice things in the hill stages and the starting position after today is good.”