The final day of racing at the Sauerland Rundfahrt saw Development Team Picnic PostNL head into it well poised in the overall battle after three strong previous days of racing, with Finn O’Brien in third, plus Alexandre Trouvain and Lennes Jacobs in the top ten battle too.
It was a relatively controlled day with the break going clear early on, while the climbers and GC favourites bided their time until the finale and the uphill kick into Winterberg. Some good positioning work from Thom van der Werff saw the aforementioned trio and Matthew Peace towards the front as the race charged the final few kilometres. O’Brien launched multiple attacks on the steepest gradients of the climb in an effort to go clear but he was shut down by the race leader and his team and things settled down again. At that moment the stage winner launched his attack, with a counter move following him, and the Team Picnic PostNL quartet all finishing on the same time in the main group that was ten seconds behind the winner.
The result meant the team ended the four days of racing with O’Brien taking a strong podium place in the overall, while other first-year U23 riders Trouvain, Jacobs and Peace marked a promising week for the Development program by finishing sixth, 11th and 19th on GC too.
O’Brien reflected on the race as a whole: “The week started well in the TT with us all keeping close on GC and Matthew taking 11th. On the second stage we worked really well as a team and communicated well, allowing me and Alexandre to get off the front on the finishing circuits with two other RedBull riders and take third and fourth on the stage. Then I was sitting third on GC going into stage three so had to ride a bit more defensively. The team did really good job helping position throughout the race and riding to get us at the front. We managed to mark the favourites and retain the times on GC with three of us in the top ten on the stage.
Finally the last day we had to combine riding more defensively again but to also try to take time on RedBull. To do this we had Matthew, Lennes and Alexandre follow the dangerous moves to hopefully get in a break and wait for the final with me. We did this really well but unfortunately they just ended up controlling things really well so we waited to make a move in the final on the summit finish. The team did a great job of following all the moves that went at first and then I tried to attack on the first kicker and got away with a group of six but we were later joined by the front of the peloton where again the team did a great job of positioning, allowing us to all come in on the same time as the leader. That meant we could maintain the GC podium and the other guys all moved up as well so that was really nice. Overall, it was a great week with some strong teamwork and cooperation, with everyone doing what they could and following the plan and I’m really happy with the results!”