Hard day of racing and hectic finale sees Mees Vlot sprint to 2nd at Ronde de l’Oise

The penultimate stage at the Ronde de l’Oise saw the peloton battle each other and the conditions, over some rolling French terrain. Leaving the start town of Bresles the bunch was met with wind and rain, which immediately made the stage harder than predicted from the gun. Multiple attacks and a high pace kept the bunch together before it eventually split through some crosswinds and over the climbs. Axel Källberg, Vincent Bodet and Mees Vlot made the split, with the trio working well to cover the bigger attacks.
Eventually a duo broke clear and things calmed down, and despite the consistent wind and rain, things would come back together for a reduced bunch sprint. Aiming to set up Källberg for the finale, things were chaotic and very hectic on the technical run-in which meant Vlot and Källberg lost each other. Coming around one of the closing corners in a good position, Vlot launched onto a flying and ultimately stage winning surge by Barbier, fighting to the line for a fine second place while Källberg managed to find his way through to make it a double top ten for the team with eighth place. Heading into tomorrow’s final stage Vlot and Bodet sit in ninth and tenth on GC, just 21 seconds down on the current race leader.
Speaking after the stage Vlot explained: “It was a long stage with really bad weather today. Unfortunately Ben couldn’t start this morning but we kept the spirit high as a group which was really nice. Our initial plan was to go for Johan in the sprint if things would stay together throughout the day and for the final, but from the beginning the race was directly hard. We were riding well together though and covered the attacks. A hard crosswind section followed and there we had some struggles and unfortunately lost Johan from the front peloton, but me, Vincent and Axel got back together and we stayed sharp and well in the front. Then finally after 130 kilometre a small break of two guys went and it all calmed down. When we entered the final lap I was feeling good, as was Axel. We planned that he would then go for the sprint and I could attack if I saw an opportunity, but that chance never came. I tried to help bring Axel to the front for the finish, but we lost each other in the chaos. In the last kilometre, I ended up moving up a lot through one corner and saw an opportunity to go for it. In the last 300 metres Barbier came from behind really fast and I tried to follow it, but he was just too fast in the end. I’m pretty pleased with the result, because I personally didn’t have the best start to the season and I’m happy that I could deliver this for the guys after we’ve had a tough few days here.”