18th May – Stage 5: Wormhout – Dunkerque
A mostly flat stage that featured several laps of a circuit around Dunkerque rounded off the stage race. Team Picnic PostNL took control at the head of the peloton and kept the break in check so that they could sprint for bonus seconds at the intermediate sprints with Tobias Lund Andresen, with a view of challenging for the overall title.
However, that plan was foiled as first and second on GC also took bonus seconds as well. Nonetheless, the battle for the stage win was on and the team did a superb job of riding consistently towards the front on the narrow and twisting course. Coming into the finale, last lead out man Nils Eekhoff brought Lund Andresen forward through the penultimate corner in around fourth wheel. Unfortunately the pace just went out from in front of Lund Andresen and those who jumped from behind came with speed, as the Team Picnic PostNL man took fourth on the stage and with it finished fourth on GC.
Lund Andresen said: “Today was quite a long day as it was then like a criterium in the end. We controlled the break as we wanted to take some bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint to have a chance at the GC win. It was only third that I could get there, so the GC win was out of reach, but we still wanted to go for the stage result. I think the guys did a really good job to keep me in the front on the laps so I was out of trouble and could save energy in all of the small accelerations. In the end I just didn’t have the sprint to win today but I think we put our mark on the race this week and we can be proud of the team effort.”