10th April – Stage 3: Tiercé – Hambers
Another rolling day out awaited Team Picnic PostNL’s Development program on Thursday, before a tricky lap circuit and an uphill finish into Hambers. Once again the team were active with Christiaan van Rees making the break of the day. Working well out front, the group could extend their advantage but once onto the local circuit the peloton quickly began to shut them down and upped the pace. Van Rees was caught and the attacks started again, with Vincent Bodet springing clear for the team.
Continuing to push hard, Bodet was caught at the start of the last lap but fought hard to remain in the leading group – even following more attacks at the front. Ultimately, he would just have to let go of the wheels on the final kick to the line, but brought the team home on the day after another strong and aggressive display of riding from the Development program.
After the finish Bodet expressed: “We wanted to ride offensively to be in the breakaway again as a team and Christiaan managed to do just that. It was a good situation for us, and we could defend our position in the peloton until entering the local circuit. It was a very fast and tricky route with a hilly finish. The whole team was in a good position so we could try to be as attacking as possible. On a quiet moment after a fast climb, I decided to attack two laps from the finish but was unfortunately caught on the hill when we got the bell. I could stay with the leading group though and had good legs to follow some more attacks, but the last time up the climb just emptied me. I then just pushed as hard to the line as I could. It is still a great experience to be attacking in this kind of race and I think we did a really good ride as a team today.”