Sports director Arthur van Dongen was surprised that the peloton let itself be beaten by the breakaway. “It doesn’t happen often that the breakaway riders succeed in a sprint stage. For us it is a pity and a missed opportunity for Olav to sprint for the win. We put Christoph at the front from the beginning to take responsibility. The final consisted of fast local laps and the men in front gave it their all. From the back there were no teams able to increase the pace and also keep lead-outs. I think this was a good learning moment and the guys up front just did a good job.”

Van Dongen also looked back on the past week. “We came here with a few guys who came back from injuries. A few guys have definitely grown over the past week. Partly due to a number of top ten places and the tenth place in the final classification for Pascal, we look back with a positive feeling. It is nice to see that our young sprinters really sprinted during the four chances they got. We competed well if you look at it from the development perspective of our men for the future.”