Primoz Roglic (LottoNL-Jumbo) on the podium having taken out the time trial(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Dylan Groenewegen added another win Friday during stage 3 at the Ster ZLM Toer in the Netherlands, backing up his win on stage 2 and making it three wins out of three stages for LottoNL-Jumbo after Primoz Roglic won the opening time trial and took the race lead.
Groenewegen took his second stage win of the race at the end of the 210km stage in Buchten, winning the bunch gallop ahead of Lotto Soudal's Andre Greipel and Moreno Hofland.
"It was a nice win," Groenewegen said. "It was a quite hectic final. Everything went well and 175 metres before the finish line, they put me in great position. For the second day in a row, the sprint train worked really well. Robert Wagner did a very fast lead-out; I only had to continue with that speed and no one was able to come over me. Most of these guys here have a chance to be in the Tour de France and I wanted to be in top form to test myself before heading there in July."
Team director Merijn Zeeman was ecstatic about taking the team's third in three tries.
"Unbelievable," Zeeman said. "I have never experienced this before, winning the first three stages of a race. It was a hell of a job to let the right breakaway go. From that point on, we controlled the race. Gijs Van Hoecke did a superb job. The rest of the guys were focused on the sprint and they did really well. A huge compliment for the guys."
Zeeman was also pleased with the progress of the team's sprint train, especially after beating Tour de France stage winner Andre Greipel as LottoNl-Jumbo continues to develop Groenewegen with the goal of winning a sprint stage at the 2018 Tour.
"We want to head to the top with Dylan," Zeeman said. "In the Ster ZLM Toer we are optimising our sprint train and putting conviction into it. We might be ahead of schedule. A win already this year in the Tour would be welcomed."
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Not so welcome was news that Roglic crashed in the final 3km of the stage, but the 27-year-old was not injured and retained his overall lead of three seconds ahead of Quick-Step Floors' Marcel Kittel and Max Schachmann.
The race continues Saturday with the 186.7km stage from Hotel Verviers to La Gileppe.
