In the longest stage of this year’s Ruta del Sol, from Seville to Iznajar, Van der Hoorn attacked in the first ten kilometres together with Matthew Holmes, Jerome Cousin and Alexis Gougeard. Later, Juan Osorio joined the quartet. The five were given a maximum lead of six and a half minutes. Van der Hoorn proved to be the strongest of the leading group and rode away from his companions on the Puerto de la Parrilla, but halfway through the climb he had to acknowledge his superior in the chasing peloton.

Chris Harper was brought in an ideal position at the foot of the steep final climb by his Team Jumbo-Visma teammates, after which the Australian crossed the line in twenty-second position at seven seconds from stage winner Gonzalo Serrano. Harper retained his seventh place in the overall standings.

“The plan was to get in the breakaway today. Bert-Jan, Paul, Lennard and I were assign beforehand for that. The rest then had to stay and support Chris and Antwan”, Van der Hoorn explained. “In the end it was me who joined the breakaway. For me it was also the only chance this week to give it a try as a non-climber. It was a good and strong group. There was also a lot of headwind, so it was a quite long day. I tried to ride as economically as possible so that I could save some energy for the final and then try to win the stage. I felt very strong and in the end I was the last one of the breakaway to get caught. It was a good attempt.”