4th March – Ename Samyn Classic: Quaregnon – Dour
With Opening Weekend behind them, Team Picnic PostNL were back in action on Tuesday at the renamed Ename Samyn Classic, where they were met with the traditional parcours. However, with no wind forecast, it would be the attitude of the peloton and the twisting narrow roads that would split things. Unfortunately, it was a day of bad luck for sprint finisher Pavel Bittner who was involved in some early crashes and stepped off the bike.
Team Picnic PostNL rallied around each other as best as they could, following some strong attacks, and heading into the last lap Tim Naberman and Casper van Uden were within the reduced peloton. However, Naberman suffered a puncture on the cobbles leaving Van Uden alone in the front. Trying his best to position himself for the finale Van Uden fought hard, but caught behind a split after the last cobbled section and couldn’t compete for a result on the day.
Van Uden said: “It was a shame Pavel crashed early in the race. We positioned ourselves well the first half of the day but after that we lost it a bit and were a bit too far back for some key moments. When there were only a few of us left in the group and the attacks started, I had to spend a lot of energy following those important moves. In the last five kilometres I made a mistake, was then out of position for the cobbles and did not have the legs anymore in the finale.”