20th August – Stage 1: Terneuzen – Breskens
The Renewi Tour got underway with the only stage that takes place in the Netherlands this week, as the peloton were faced with a flat 182 kilometre route from Terneuzen to Breskens. With the threat of wind and potential crosswinds throughout the day, it made for a fast stage. The original break was caught and a 16 rider group, that featured Team Picnic PostNL’s Frank van den Broek, went clear with over 90 kilometres to race. Their advantage was only ever allowed to reach 45 seconds at most and they were brought back with around five kilometres to go.
From there, the team looked to set-up the sprint with finisher Pavel Bittner. A strong lead-out from the team, and in particular last-man Nils Eekhoff, saw the squad navigate the chaos of the closing kilometres, with Eekhoff dropping Bittner off with around 200 metres to go. From there, Bittner could launch his sprint into clean air and eventually crossed the line in a strong fourth place – and something to build on for the coming days.
Bittner expressed: “We went into today knowing that it would be a stressful day with the wind. In the final we wanted to go for a sprint with me but in keep in mind the GC with Nils, and I think we did a pretty good job. At one point it really started racing in teh bunch and a group of 16 went with Frank in there for us which made it a lot safer and better for us. We were then gliding around the front to make sure that nothing happened or went without us. Coming into the final I found my good legs from the Tour, and I was feeling really good. Alex and then Nils did a really good job, and Nils basically placed me on 230 metres to go. I was second wheel and felt confident so I launched, but I had some strong guys on my wheel and they went around so in the end it was a fourth place. On one hand I really wanted to win today but it’s a good sign for the rest of the week and tomorrow we have another chance to go for it, so I think it was a nice day to kick off the racing here.”