In the fourth and longest stage of the ZLM Tour, five riders quickly formed the traditional early breakaway. As the leading group built up a lead of more than two minutes, Team Visma | Lease a Bike positioned itself at the front of the peloton.

In the finale, on the local circuits, the race opened up in the peloton. Van Belle and Behrens represented the team on the attack, but unfortunately the peloton kept the escapees under control. As the focus shifted towards a bunch sprint, the peloton ultimately arrived too late. Lionel Taminiaux won the stage, with Hobbs finishing seventh.

“I’m proud of what the guys showed today,” sports director Arthur van Dongen said afterwards. “The plan was to make the race hard in the finale, and we certainly did that. Niklas and Loe showed themselves on the attack, but unfortunately, the race wasn’t hard enough to make the difference in the end.”

The peloton eventually sprinted for the remaining places of honour, with Hobbs taking seventh. “Henry is doing extremely well at this level. To see a 19-year-old perform like this among the professionals is really impressive. He has already taken several top results this week and once again showed himself today. Henry is making great progress,” Van Dongen concluded.