Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) bested Lotto-Soudal's sprint gun on sprint Stages 1 (Ewan 3rd) and 2 (Ewan 2nd) but this time could only manage third behind he and Max Walscheid (Sunweb).
“It is always good to win a sprint before a big goal," Ewan said of his victory on the 170km stage from Eindhoven to Tilburg. "I had the same in the Tour of Turkey, which gave me confidence going into the Giro, where I took two nice stage victories. It’s good to get that winning feeling again and it should give me some confidence for the first part of the Tour.”
“I did a little bit of everything in this five-day race. I did a good time trial in the start, a few sprints and some attacks. Actually, the legs felt pretty tired today but luckily, I had something left in the end. Of course, it’s always good for the confidence to get a win.
"In the finale, we were trying to make Jumbo-Visma work harder as first Jelle Wallays and then Nikolas Maes attacked. So the goal was to make them use up their guys so it wouldn’t be easy for them to do a normal lead-out. I think we successfully did that because they were running out of guys and had to chase really hard during the final local lap. It was a different tactic but in the end, it worked.”
“We were also running short of guys but Roger Kluge and Jasper De Buyst kept the speed high so it was easier for me to jump on the wheel of Groenewegen. Then I knew, once we got through the chicane with 200 metres to go, I needed to start my sprint, so that’s what I did. I came around him with some good speed and could take the win.“
