A crash in the final kilometre of the final stage of the Tour of Dubai has thwarted the plans of Dylan Groenewegen and Team LottoNL-Jumbo. Groenewegen was in perfect position before the final corner, but was held up by a crash and wasn’t able to launch his sprint anymore.

Until the crash, everything seemed to be going smoothly with a good lead-out from Tom Leezer, Amund Grondahl Jansen and Timo Roosen. Despite the unfortunate circumstances in the last metres, sports director Jan Boven looked back at the past week with a positive feeling. “Something like this can always happen. As we saw from the car, all went well until the final turn. The lead-out went perfectly and the boys sticked to the plan. In addition, Bram Tankink has done a tremendous job by chasing down the breakaway all day. A crash is part of cycling”, Boven said.

A stage win and a second place for Groenewegen, a third place for Timo Roosen and two days in the leader’s jersey made Boven look back at the Tour of Dubai with satisfaction and a good feeling. “Above all, it was an educational week. Some things went well, other things didn’t. We know what we have to work on to improve. All in all we can look back at an excellent week with Dylan’s stage win and Timo’s third place and his top ten position in the general classification. What I remember the most is that I have seen a motivated group of guys. That’s promising for the remainder of the season.”