Nils Eekhoff victorious in ZLM Tour prologue

Nils Eekhoff (Team DSM) powered to victory in the prologue of the ZLM Tour in Heinkenszand, defeating teammate Alex Edmondson last year's overall champion Olav Kooij (Jumbo-Visma) by fractions of a second.

Eekhoff covered the 6.6 kilometre course with a time of 7:27.79, with Edmondson 0.36 seconds slower and Kooij just 0.05 seconds further behind in third.

It was the first professional victory for the 25-year-old.

"I'm really happy to take my first win here," Eekhoff said. "I went pretty deep and am super happy to win. Going out was a tailwind and superfast. Toward the finish, the headwind made it pretty tough but it worked out pretty well."

Team DSM stacked the top 10 with Sam Welsford in fifth and Patrick Eddy from the DSM development team in ninth.

Among the starters in the ProSeries five-day stage race is Mark Cavendish (Astana), who is back in action with lead-out man Cees Bol, who finished sixth on the stage.