Team LottoNL-Jumbo placed third in the fifth stage of the Eneco Tour today. BMC Racing won the 20.9-kilometre team time trial in 23-11 minutes, six seconds faster than Etixx and 23 seconds faster than team LottoNL-Jumbo. Rohan Dennis (BMC) took the lead in the GC. 

The team averaged 53.2 kilometres per hour in Sittard-Geleen. Wilco Kelderman had a tough day. "In the beginning, it was not good, I was not following the wheels well and that cost a lot of energy. In the end, I came around and improved my rhythm,” Kelderman said. "It’s a cool discipline because you do everything together, from preparing to the suffering."

Sprinter Dylan Groenewegen finished with the five men. "We kept our GC guys well in the standings. We gave everything and this is the result,” Groenewegen said. “A sprinter is made for this sort of thing, short turns and then pushing the pace.”

Van Emden keeping in the GC

Jos van Emden remains the team’s best rider in the classification, but he dropped to sixth overall. "Third was actually good for us,” Van Emden said. "Maybe I was riding too fast on the first climb when Robert Wagner got into trouble. Today, I went like a rocket, but it makes the rest of the guys suffer more. I started with the idea to compete for the win."

Mathieu Heijboer

Trainer Mathieu Heijboer analysed the last test before the world championship team time trial in October. "We delivered a good performance, third in this field is good,” he said. “But there is certainly work to be done in order to be as fast as BMC and Etixx. The ambition was to stay close to BMC, and 23 seconds is quite a lot.”

Heijboer explained a big difference is that BMC finished with eight men and Team LottoNL-Jumbo with just five. “We lost a rider too early and therefore we lost time."