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.








