The stage from Notaresco was controlled by the sprinter teams and an early breakaway was caught in the final. In the last kilometres Groenewegen was brought into a good position by Jos van Emden and Edoardo Affini. Groenewegen survived the final climb, but didn’t have the power anymore to sprint for the stage victory.

Yet Groenewegen sees a good progress. “Of course I would like to win, but on such a finish as today I still miss race rhythm and hardness. The team was very strong today and did a really good job. We did exactly what we had discussed. I was brought into a good position at the foot of that climb, but I had nothing left for the sprint. But we will take the positive things with us and we will continue this line to the upcoming stages. I’ve definitely made progress and so has the team. It feels good to be back in the peloton and to feel like a cyclist again. I am already looking forward to the next sprint.”

Sports director Arthur van Dongen concurred with his sprinter. “As a team we were closer today than we were a few days ago. We evaluated well after the previous sprint stage. The boys are getting more and more used to each other and you could see that today. It is nice to see how the boys have gone through fire for each other and how they have grown closer to each other. So we’ll take the positive things with us because there are still a number of sprint opportunities to come.”