With only one sprint opportunity up for grabs at this year’s Arctic Race of Norway, the fastmen would have to take their chance on Friday’s stage to Brønnøysund.
While stage winner Dylan Groenewegen did exactly what he came to Norway to do, it was a different story for Team DSM sprinter Cees Bol. While his countryman sped to a seventh win of the season, the 27-year-old was out of the reckoning, languishing down in 30th place.
For Bol, who last year took a stage win at Paris-Nice, the day was demonstrative of a 2022 season which has never come together, with illness and injury striking him multiple times.
“Yesterday was really disappointing for me,” Bol told Cyclingnews on Saturday. “It was just shit and hectic and I made too many mistakes to be there in the final. So, that was a big disappointment for me.
“I had some bad luck and also a day like yesterday a bit too often. So that’s not been so easy. It’s been pretty hard.”
Bol said that he has been going well at various points in the year, but bad luck – including a training camp injury, a spring illness, and a COVID-19 infection – has set him back time and again.
“I left the Tour de Suisse with COVID-19,” he said. “I was pretty sick after Paris-Nice, too, and in the winter, I had some problems with the knee. “There’s also definitely been times where the shape has been good, and I’ve been riding well. But it’s a bit out of balance, I would say.”
Bol is reaching the end of his contract with Team DSM as strong rumours link him to B&B Hotels-KTM, the French team set to enjoy a bigger budget thanks to a new title sponsor for 2023.
He couldn’t confirm any move and said that he hadn’t signed a contract for next season yet but added that news of his new destination should be coming soon.
“It’s been a good time here and we’ll see when there’s more news about the future,” he said. “I can’t say too much about it. I haven’t signed anywhere but I don’t think it will be too long anymore.”
There’s still time to turn his season around before winter, though, and there are opportunities coming up to end his time with DSM on a high.
“I have a really nice race programme actually. I’ll do Hamburg next and then the Tour of Britain, and then a lot of the Belgian one-day races. They’re nice races for me, and I look forward to racing them. I hope the form is coming a bit more, I think so.”
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