Dylan Groenewegen won the third stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana today. The 22-year-old of Team LottoNL-Jumbo sprinted and in the streets of Alzira to edge out Nacer Bouhanni (Team Cofidis) and Alexander Porsev (Team Katusha). Wout Poels (Sky) remains in control of the overall standings.

The stage was mostly flat with a small breakaway lingering out front, but never far from the clutches of the peloton. Just before the final 10 kilometres, the peloton caught the break and the teams prepared for a sprint. Team LottoNL-Jumbo focused its entire winter on its sprint train, which is bearing fruit already.

"What you feed grows," sports director Merijn Zeeman said. "We are already working for some time with the sprint train and this is a good start. We took the initiative at a certain point to pull in the break and the other teams came and worked with us in the lead. In the final, it was hectic but it mostly ran well. We can learn a lot from this and evaluate it, but for now we’ll enjoy the victory. "

The stage started with a third category mountain, which required saving as much energy as possible. At 30 kilometres from the finish, the riders of Team LottoNL-Jumbo protected Dylan Groenewegen from the wind for the final.

"The guys helped me to a fantastic day," Groenewegen said after his victory. "Paul, Steven, Tom, Alexey, Koen, Victor, Dennis… they were fantastic. It feels great to win in the first sprint of the season and repay the team’s confidence. "

The final was hectic but Team LottoNL-Jumbo remained positioned and dropped off Dylan well in the last kilometre.

"I was positioned well and in the last 500 metres, I took the wheel of Bouhanni," Groenewegen continued. "He still had two of his men in front of him. I noticed when he went for the sprint that I could pass but I waited. At the very end, I came up and over for the victory – one for me and the team.”