ZLM Tour: Rune Herregodts carves fastest time on time trial and wins stage 1

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Rune Herregodts (Intermarché-Wanty) won the stage 1 time trial and took the first leader’s jersey of the ZLM Tour. He posted the time to beat from among the early starters, posting 17:16 on the 14.7km ITT, and never relinquished the hot seat.

Tim Van Dijke (Visma-Lease a Bike) was the final rider on the course and was the only rider to come close, finishing 12 seconds back as runner-up. Astana Qazaqstan teammates Gleb Syritsa and Max Walker were 17 and 19 seconds back, respectively, with Syritsa securing the final podium spot.

"I had a lot of ambition at the start of this time trial and I'm proud to achieve this victory, the first in an international time trial in the history of the team. It's a reward for the investments made by our structure in this discipline in recent years," Herregodts said in a team statement.

"Before this time trial, Adriaan [Helmanteland, team trainer] and I discussed at length the best starting time based on the wind forecasts. He also promised me to swim in the sea if a rider from our team won. It was the extra motivating factor during the last kilometers along the coast..."

The five-day stage race commenced from Westkapelle for the 14.7km individual time trial, set on the edge of the North Sea under blue skies in the late afternoon sunshine. The narrow roads twisted and turned on a flat but technical course in a counter-clockwise direction through the Dutch city.

From among the early starters of the 130 riders, Fabio van den Bossche (Alpecin-Deceuninck) set the early benchmark under 18 minutes at 17:59. It was not until another 17 rides crossed the line that Eddy Patrick (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), the Australian junior time trial champion in 2019, took the hot seat with 17:54.

Herregodts then blasted across the line to drop the fastest time by 38 seconds. Walker also went under Patrick’s time by 20 seconds to put him in provisional second place, but then he was bumped down to third by Astana teammate Gleb Syritsa by two seconds, but neither but threatened Herregodts.

During the 60-plus minutes Herregodts rested in the hot seat, race organisers converted his stint in the chair into a pop-up barber shop and had someone give him a quick hair trim.

Mike Teunissen (Intermarché-Wanty) was the only previous winner of the ZLM Tour on the start Wednesday, the Dutch rider taking the GC title in 2019, but he finished 45 seconds off the best time, with 42 riders to go.

As the setting sun cast shadows across the small descent to the finish, Tim Van Dijke (Visma-Lease a Bike) took the course as the final rider in the field. He was seventh in the prologue last year, but that was just 6.6km and this year’s time trial was more than double the distance, and he finished second overall, 12 seconds down on Herrogodts.

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