21st March – Youngster Coast Challenge: Bredene – Koksijde
In the Youngster Coast Challenge, the riders from our Development Program, just like the Men’s Program later in the day, took on a course along the Belgian coast. The race set off from Bredene and finished in Koksijde after a rolling middle section and a passage through the infamous Moeren.
Shortly after the start, the race was briefly neutralized due to a big crash. As soon as it restarted, the pace surged again, splitting the peloton into several groups. With around 30 kilometers to go, the front group and the first chasing group merged, forming a reduced bunch of about 40 riders, including Oliver Peace and Ryan Gal for Team Picnic PostNL. In the end, it all came down to a sprint from that select group, where Sente Sentjens proved to be the fastest. Oliver Peace was the first Team Picnic PostNL rider across the line.
After the race Peace said: “It was a super chaotic start to the race, race being stopped in the neutral and then the race getting neutralised after 10km. Once we got going, we used the wind to split the race, and four of us made it into the front echelon. Not long after, Christiaan was squeezed into the gutter and crashed, with me caught behind, while Johan and Matteo also went down. That left me alone in the second group. After about 90km of chasing, my group made it back to the front, and shortly after, Ryan’s group rejoined as well. I tried to get involved in the attacks, but there was too much control in the bunch, so it all came down to a sprint in the end.”