Dylan Groenewegen took an impressive sprint victory in Friday’s 7th stage of the 2018 Tour de France, besting many sprint favorites across the line in Chartres.
LottoNL-Jumbo Sprint Project
For Groenewegen, it’s his second stage victory ever in the Tour de France. Last year, he won at the Champs-Élysées in Paris. It’s Groenewegen’s tenth victory of the season and it’s the twenty-first for Team LottoNL-Jumbo.
In the longest stage of the Tour de France, the wait was long for the final sprint. Groenewegen was perfectly positioned by Paul Martens, Amund Grondahl Jansen and Timo Roosen. He timed his sprint superbly and won it in a superior way. Robert Gesink and Antwan Tolhoek did a great job too by keeping control in the peloton.
“Finally”, Groenewegen sighed. “In the first two stages, I didn’t have enough power in my legs. But I felt that it improved every day. In the fourth stage, my timing was wrong, but I felt good. Compared to last year, I feel more pressure now. The fact that I’m winning the stage here is beyond great. The team did a very good job today and I’m grateful for the confidence that I get from the team. I positioned myself in Kristoff’s wheel and with two hundred metres to go I thought: this is the moment. This really gives a lot of confidence for the coming stages.”
In 2016, Team LottoNL-Jumbo started the sprint project around Groenewegen. The goal was to achieve success in the 2018 Tour de France.
Van Avermaet Extends Overall Lead
Greg Van Avermaet extended his overall race lead at the end of the first week.
“It was a pretty calm day but you still had to be focused as guys tried twice to force echelons and that made it kind of nervous but overall, it was a good day,” Van Avermaet said after the stage. “It was a long day and it was a little bit more relaxed but with a really fast final. I am happy I could take those three extra seconds in the bonus sprint. It was an open sprint with nobody in front so it was good to give it a try and take some seconds to make sure I am safe for the next stage. Now, I can probably keep the jersey to Roubaix and overall it’s been a nice week so far.
“Tomorrow is going to be flat but shorter than today and I think it is going to have the same outcome. I feel like I can focus on Sunday and try to be up there and we will see what happens.”
“It’s been a good start to the race so far,” Richie Porte added. “Today was the longest stage at 231km and not a lot happened but it was pretty frantic there in the final. I think as a whole, it’s nice to get to where we are, in the position that we have with Greg going into a fifth day in the yellow jersey tomorrow.”
Sagan Retains Points Lead
Twists, turns and an uphill kick in the final kilometer meant that Peter Sagan was unable to take his third win of the Tour, but he finished the day in 3rd and retained his Maillot Vert once again at the end of the first week of racing.
In the GC standings, Rafał Majka finished safely in the bunch to keep hold of his 9th position in the GC.
“As expected, we had a fast finishing sprint today,” Sagan said. “The guys had done an excellent job all day and they were perfect in the final kilometres to put me in position for the finale. I took third and I’m pleased with my performance and my form. I said it before, it’s a long Tour de France and we will fight for our chances every day.”
Cavendish in the Mix
Mark Cavendish was still in contention in today’s stage with Renshaw keeping the pace high when a rider behind made contact with his rear wheel at 100m to go. The loss of speed from the contact saw the Manxman cross the line 10th on the stage.
It was another quick finish today after a long stage,” Cavendish’s lead off man Mark Renshaw said. “For us, the wheels kind of fell off our sprint train with 2km to go. We had Cav on my wheel and after the corner I heard him yelling. That normally means he’s not on the wheel anymore, when I looked back I couldn’t see him so I went to the front to speed it up so that it would least give Cav the chance to move and he could still contest the sprint. We’re going to keep trying, we have another chance tomorrow and I think it’s another slightly uphill finish. We have a great team here that’s been riding well together and showing fight so hopefully we can get a reward for our efforts.
Ron is the chief cook and bottlewasher at Bike World News, doing everything from website design to bike reviews.
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