Ster van Zwolle
Development Team Picnic PostNL were in action on Saturday at the Ster van Zwolle, taking on a fast and flat 192-kilometre route starting and finishing in Zwolle. With many narrow roads throughout the course, positioning in the peloton was key during the day. In the latter part of the race, several riders tried their luck with attacks, but only one rider managed to establish a meaningful gap. Heading into the final 10 kilometres, the lone attacker still held an advantage of around 15 seconds, prompting Development Team Picnic PostNL to contribute to the chase. The attacker was caught with five kilometres remaining, setting up the expected bunch sprint in Zwolle. In the fast finale, it was Thom van der Werff who narrowly missed out on a podium, fighting hard in the sprint to finish 4th.
After the race, Van der Werff said: “It was a hectic race where we stayed attentive to the attacks throughout the day. In the end it came down to a bunch sprint, where our plan was to position Christiaan for the finish. In the last two kilometres we lost each other a bit, but with the help of Lennes I was still able to come into the final corner in a good position. From what was almost the perfect spot, I waited a little too long to launch my sprint and was just beaten to third place on the line. It’s a shame that after such an attentive race we couldn’t reward the team’s effort with a podium.”