LottoNL-Jumbo ends strong Ster ZLM Toer with anti-climax
Team LottoNL-Jumbo worked hard for a bunch sprint in the final stage of the Ster ZLM Toer on Sunday, but after a wrong choice in the final kilometres, the plan fell apart. Sports Director Erik Dekker was disappointed, but said good feelings should prevail after a successful week in Belgium and The Netherlands.
Team LottoNL-Jumbo worked hard for a bunch sprint in the final stage of the Ster ZLM Toer on Sunday, but after a wrong choice in the final kilometres, the plan fell apart. Sports Director Erik Dekker was disappointed, but said good feelings should prevail after a successful week in Belgium and The Netherlands.
The fourth and final stage, which finished in Boxtel, was won by Matt Brammeier, and Irishman with MTN-Qhubeka, who surprised the pack with a late solo attack. André Greipel sprinted to second. Enough to secure the overall victory. LottoNL-Jumbo’s Moreno Hofland sprinted to 12th place on his way to celebrating third place overall.“I knew it was going to be hard to move up in the general classification,” Hofland said afterward. “Greipel is a very strong sprinter. He’s hard to beat. Making up 10 seconds was almost impossible. We rode for a sprint all day long, but in the final we were all by ourselves. Other teams didn’t want to cooperate.”
Erik Dekker
“We went for the stage win today,” added LottoNL-Jumbo Sports Director Erik Dekker. “When a break formed, we immediately started chasing. We knew Lotto-Soudal wouldn’t cooperate, so we looked at ourselves. It was important to get things back together, and keep it together, but unfortunately we didn’t succeed in that last mission.
“Nobody responded when Brammeier accelerated. We gambled and waited, but in the end we waited too long. I understood the decision to wait, but we should have interfered sooner. We should have sacrificed some of our lead-out men. That way, at least you have a chance. That wasn’t the case, so all our hard work was for nothing.”
'Good feeling'
Dekker looked back on a strong Ster ZLM Toer, however: Martijn Keizer finished second in the prologue, while Hofland sprinted to second place in stage two, won the queen stage and finished third in the overall classification.
“Of course, today was frustrating, but we have to let that good feeling prevail,” Dekker said. “We have shown ourselves as a team this week, we took responsibility and were decisive at certain moments. That was good for our confidence. And Moreno met his targets in the run-up to Nationals.”
