Christophe Laporte became the first winner of the newly revived Tour of Holland on Sunday, after an incident-free ride through the final, largely flat stage, won with a spellbinding late attack by sprinter Danny van Poppel.
The leader since Saturday’s summit finish on the VAM-Berg climb, Laporte’s victory rounds out a season that was seriously blighted by illness in its first half, but which could not end on a higher note.
The Red Bull-Bora-Hangrohe racer crossed the line just ahead of fellow-attacker Huub Artz (Intermarché-Wanty), with Alec Segaert (Lotto) claiming third. Stage 1 winner Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) and points classification winner led in the peloton for fifth.
“It’s amazing, I still cannot believe it because it’s also not from a bunch sprint like I normally do, just a crazy move to jump across to that break,” Van Poppel said afterwards.
How it unfolded
Van Poppel’s win brought an unexpected shine to a final stage of the Tour of Holland that had lost a key part of its initial appeal when organisers announced the 13-kilometre local circuit, tackled 11 times, would have a gravel section removed for safety reasons. It seemed all but certain as a result even if there was one short climb on the circuit, there were not enough challenges to avoid a tedious grind down to a bunch sprint.
For the first 50 kilometres, in fact, there…
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