Casper van Uden sprints to 2nd at Heistse Pijl after great positioning work by the team

A double-header of races in Belgium this weekend for our Men’s program got underway on Saturday afternoon with Heistse Pijl. Taking place on a mostly flat parcours, the short but narrow cobbled Heistseberg climb would be the main obstacle of the day, with the last ascent cresting at roughly one kilometre to go.
Things were controlled from the off with Team dsm-firmenich PostNL remaining in the bunch behind the five rider breakaway, with Frank Aron Ragilo helping to contribute to the pace setting and making sure those ahead didn’t get too big of a gap. Despite some counterattacks, the peloton was always in control and it was clear that it would be a battle onto and over the last ascent of the Heistseberg. The team did a brilliant job to bubble up and charge forwards in the final kilometres, with everyone doing their job brilliantly to ensure that fast finisher Casper van Uden went into the climb in second wheel. From there, it was a case of Van Uden digging deep over the top and down the descent to hold position, before launching his sprint in the finale. Unfortunately, Kristoff proved to be just a bit faster in the end but nonetheless it was a strong second place on the day for Van Uden and the team, who continue their good run of form after the recent win at Rund um Köln.
Speaking after the stage Van Uden said: “We kept our cool all day. The boys did a great job first in the chase to catch the break and then they did a really good job dropping me off exactly where I needed to be at the bottom of the climb. Over the top it was then about holding the position and going for it in the sprint and in the end, the legs were good enough for second today.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Roy Curvers added: “The guys were able to deliver Casper in a perfect position on the bottom of the climb. We knew that we had to be in the top seven or so going into there to be able to compete for the win, and if Casper was there then we believed that he had a good shot at going for it. In the end it was second place but I think it was a really good race from the guys. We took responsibility in the chase with Frank the whole day, and then raced as a unit like we wanted to. If you compete for the win then you can also come second and today Kristoff was just faster in the end.”