Great teamwork as Pavel Bittner takes 5th in hectic Tour de France sprint

A long day in the saddle awaited the peloton as they battled into a headwind for most of the stage, but Team Picnic PostNL remained calm and composed, biding their time for the finale. Avoiding the crashes in the bunch, the team held onto the right side of the road as the race picked up the pace and charged towards the finish in Dunkerque.

Great early positioning work by the squad saw the team’s sprint group well to the fore in the final five kilometres, before Sean Flynn made a decisive move to bring the rest of the team up. From there, Niklas Märkl guided Tobias Lund Andresen and Pavel Bittner into the wheel of Lidl-Trek’s lead-out, before Lund Andresen then took over once those ahead stopped their efforts. Piloting and guiding each other perfectly through the twists and turns, Lund Andresen launched Bittner who opened up at around 250 metres to go; not wanting to get boxed in from those coming off his wheel. Giving everything he had, Bittner crossed the line for a strong fifth place, while Lund Andresen followed home in 11th.

Back at the bus Bittner said: “Today we went into the race of going for a sprint with me. It was quite an easy stage actually because there was a headwind all day, and there was no proper breakaway. Towards the final we all stayed calm and together. Once the time came we chose the right side. I think on TV it looked really nervous but for Tobias, Niklas and me it was really smooth coming into the final, I didn’t really have to do anything. I really appreciate the effort from the guys. Tobias brought me all the way to around 250 metres to go and I knew that I had to launch because otherwise I would get caught up in the washing machine with the other sprinters. It was a really cool moment to come into the finish sprint as first and second on the road, I will remember that for a long time, and I hope to get more chances like this. Merlier and Milan were really strong and came around me, but I don’t regret anything today; the boys were great. For a first real Tour de France sprint, this was promising and I’m hoping we can do more together in this Tour de France.”

Team Picnic PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “I’m really satisfied, I think the teamwork was really good. You saw that the guys came together in a good way coming into the final. They stayed calm and kept in that bubble, then made their move when it counted and came to the front, avoided the crashes, and enabled Pavel to sprint. All you can ask is that your sprint finisher starts their sprint with a clear line ahead, that they aren’t blocked, and can just really go for it and that’s what we saw. It was a fantastic lead-out by the guys and a nice sprint from Pavel. We saw yesterday also with Oscar’s sixth place that although we’ve got a young team here, we have guys that are hungry and that can and want to race, so we’ll look to keep this up for the rest of the Tour de France.”