Dylan Groenewegen sprints to his second career Dutch men's road race title

Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) reclaimed the road race title at the Netherlands Road Championships after last taking the red-white-blue jersey in 2016. 

Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) finished several bike lengths back in the bunch sprint for the silver medal, with Ramon Sinkeldam (Alpecin-Decuninck) edging out Mike Teunissen (Intermarché-Wanty) for the bronze.

Riding second wheel behind Jelte Krijnsen (Parkhotel Valkenburg) with 200 metres to go, Groenewegen accelerated around the left side of the 23-year-old in the final corner to move clear for the victory.

"I am super happy, this is a jersey for a whole year, so that is nice. It was not very easy, the whole team rode so hard for this, the boys gave it their everything to make it come to a sprint," Groenewegen said.

"It's really nice to finish it off like this with the win. I was really convinced of my ability in the last kilometre and it is special to take the jersey to the Tour de France now." 

Last year’s winner Dylan van Baarle (Visma-Lease a Bike) was not on the start, having fractured his collarbone in a mass crash at Critérium du Dauphiné two weeks ago. Van Baarle had been named to the Dutch road squad for the Olympic Games, while sprinters Kooij and Groenewegen were not called for duty.

Parkhotel Valkenburg and BEAT Cycling Club had the highest number of riders in the road race, with 12 and 11, respectively, while the largest group from the WorldTour level was Visma-Lease a Bike. Jayco AlUla had just three riders.

The 199km course was comprised of two circuits - a 15km loop completed nine times and then a lap around Arnhem done seven times, with a climb of Wagnerlaan (400 metres at 4.3%) just before the long straight finish back in the centre of Arnhem.

A series of attacks took place all day and each breakaway group was only allowed a short leash before regrouping. With two laps to go, a group of four got away with a 20-second lead - Mick van Dijke (Visma-Lease a Bike), Oscar Riesebank (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Jasper Haest (VolkerWessels Cycling) and Guillaume Visser (Diftar Continental Cycling).

Haest took his opportunity to steal away from the group on a solo attack with 4km to go, but heading to the one-kilometre to go marker his hopes were dashed by the sprint teams. Krijnsen set the pace at the front, but was no match for Groenewegen in the end.

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