Owen Geleijn managed to get in the breakaway early on in the stage. The rider from the Team Jumbo-Visma Academy had to pay the price for his efforts a little later and could no longer keep up with the high pace at the front. The escapees got a lead of almost ten minutes, but after several accelerations of the peloton they were caught at ten kilometres from the finish.

Christoph Pfingsten was in the lead for a long time to bring Tolhoek into good position. He then sprinted at the front, which resulted in tenth place in the day’s result.

Tolhoek looked back on the opening stage with a satisfied feeling. “It was a beautiful finish. Christoph did a great job and I was in a good position in the final. I was hampered by a crash, so I ended up further back. Luckily I was able to keep my speed. I’m looking forward to the coming days and think that with this team we can definitely play an important role in this race.”

Sports director Robert Wagner was hopeful for the coming days. “We have a young team here. We started this tour without a clear-cut leader. The intention is to attack. We have to try to be in the breakaways. That worked in the beginning today. Unfortunately Owen lost a lot of energy to get in the breakaway, so later on he had to let go. Antwan’s tenth place is a great achievement. The upcoming stages should go well for him. Hopefully there’s a nice classification ahead of him here.”