Casper van Uden sprints to 11th Team dsm-firmenich PostNL win of the season

Building on strong performances over the last few days, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL secured their second win of the week on home Dutch soil at the ZLM Tour with Casper van Uden, making it eleven wins for the Men’s program in 2024 so far.
While the parcours didn’t include many altitude metres, the Dutch winds made it a chaotic and fast day for the peloton. It took a while for a breakaway to establish a small gap, but they were quickly caught when the first splits occurred. Everything came back together before the final 100 kilometres, calming the race momentarily. However, it wasn’t long before the peloton split into two groups again, and another attack created three groups on the road. While the two groups at the back regrouped quickly, the ten riders at the front fought hard to stay ahead. Team dsm-firmenich PostNL took responsibility in the chase, helping to bring things back together, aiming to set up the fast finishing Van Uden for the finish into Roosendaal. The last two riders were eventually caught with only 500 meters to go, but the team did an excellent job to position van Uden, who then sprinted comfortably to a fantastic second win of the week.
Speaking after the stage an elated Van Uden expressed: “It was a hectic day today with the wind but the boys did a really good job keeping me towards the front and I didn’t miss a split because of that. In the final they chased full gas to catch the break and luckily we did, so I am happy to give them another win after their hard work throughout the day and I am ready now for the final stage.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Joey van Rhee added: “Today was quite a hectic day where the expected echelons caused some chaos. We were very present when the peloton split the first time but everything came back together before a group of 26 guys got a gap again, with only Casper in it for us. Out of this group ten riders attacked and Casper made the gamble to not follow the move. The peloton then caught Casper’s group and we had good numbers there to help with chasing. It became quite tight again in the end, but we managed it in a good way and we caught them with 500 metres to go. Casper could then take his second win of the week and finish off the amazing team effort today.”