After the first of five laps, six riders broke away from the peloton. Lemmen, who lives near Veenendaal, was one of them and grabbed a maximum lead of two and a half minutes. The breakaway worked well together and ensured that the peloton had to pull out all the stops to catch the leading group.

At two kilometers from the finish, Lemmen and his companions had to acknowledge its superiority to the peloton. "It was a tough day. After about 25 kilometers we rode away with a strong group, although it took quite a long time before the peloton let us go. Eventually we got a nice lead and the moment the peloton started to accelerate, we accelerated as well."

"With a lap and a half to go, I thought, well, we're not even riding full speed yet. If we start accelerating later, they won't close it easily." After the last passages of the Grebbeberg and the Paardenveld, the gap became smaller and smaller. "Then you do notice that those three hours on the attack don't help. No, I wasn't surprised that the legs started to fill up."

Lemmen, who as a Soesterberger regularly trains in this region, says he was extra motivated to get in the breakaway. "With the team, we had planned that one of us had to be in the breakaway. As I live around here, I thought it would be fun to ride up front. There were a lot of friends and family members along the course. It was the first time my parents, brother and sister were all there. That's kind of special."