Dylan Groenewegen wins Tour of Britain stage 4
Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s Dylan Groenewegen won the Tour of Britain’s stage four today with a sprint ahead of Dan McClay (Great Britain). The Dutchman profited off the power of the team to deliver the win. Belgian Julien Vermote (Etixx) retains the overall lead.
The win was made even more impressive by the fact that it came after a very long and lumpy stage that turned out to be too hard for many sprinters, including Mark Cavendish. However, Groenewegen made the selection and after Lotto Soudal decided not to work for André Greipel to give Jens Debusschere the chance, he showed his class by holding Daniel McLay off in a very close sprint.
“When I’m in a clear position to sprint, I’m at my best. Today, the team ensured that I was in that position,” Groenewegen said. “All day, I had team-mates around me who helped me on every climb. When I got stuck behind, they made sure I got back into the peloton.”
“The plan was to sprint with Dylan,” Sports Director Merijn Zeeman explained. “We knew it would be a tough goal in a stage of 217 kilometres and 3000 metres climbing. When it succeeds, though, it’s extra nice.
Tour of Britain 2016 – stage 4 results (Denbigh – Builth Wells):
| 1 | Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
5:28:49 |
| 2 | Daniel McLay (Great Britain) |
,, |
| 3 | Ben Swift (Sky) |
,, |
| 4 | Carlos Barbero (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) |
,, |
| 5 | Julien Vermote (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
,, |
| 6 | Boy Van Poppel (Trek-Segafredo) |
,, |
| 7 | Luka Mezgec (Orica-BikeExchange) |
,, |
| 8 | Nicolas Vereecken (An Post-Chainreaction) |
,, |
| 9 | Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) |
,, |
| 10 | Diego Rubio (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) |
,, |
General classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Julien Vermote (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
18:22:04 |
| 2 | Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) |
+06” |
| 3 | Ben Swift (Sky) |
+01’03” |
| 4 | Tony Gallopin (Lotto Soudal) |
,, |
| 5 | Daniel Martin (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
+01’04” |
| 6 | Xandro Meurisse (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) |
+01’08” |
| 7 | Dylan Van Baarle (Cannondale-Drapac) |
+01’12” |
| 8 | Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) |
,, |
| 9 | Guillaume Martin (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) |
,, |
| 10 | Nicolas Roche (Sky) |
+01’16” |
