Jos van Emden has finished tenth in Paris-Tours. Pascal Eenkhoorn was also riding in front a lot in the newly laid-out French classic. He became seventeenth. Koen Bouwman has crossed the finish line in GP Beghelli as ninth. In Italy, Steven Kruijswijk showed he’s still in an excellent shape.

Multiple gravel paths and steep climbs were added to the course of Paris-Tours. “If you’re riding well, the course is nice. But some of the paths were too bad”, Van Emden said. “It was nice to ride well over here. But when the classic riders attacked uphill, I couldn’t follow. In the end, I managed to finish in the top ten.”

In GP Beghelli, Kruijswijk was riding in front a lot. In the final, he was part of the breakaway for a long time, but he couldn’t escape. Bauke Mollema soloed to the win. Thereafter, Bouwman sprinted to a top ten spot in the Italian semi-classic.

“As a team, we rode a good race”, Bouwman said. “We cycled a lot in front and we were always in the race. The morale was good. It paid out in a nice race for the team.”