Today André Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) won the second edition of the Ronde van Zeeland Seaports, which is part of the Europe Tour.

The riders had to cover 197 km including fourteen cobblestone sections on the course. Jürgen Roelandts was originally selected for this race as team leader of the Lotto-Belisol, but he didn’t start because he was feeling ill.

Early in the race a breakaway of six was formed and the front group got more than a five minutes lead. In the peloton especially Argos-Shimano and Blanco did much work to reel the breakaway group back in.  At about three km from the end all escapees were caught and the peloton was heading for a sprint. It was won by André Greipel, before Ramon Sinkeldam and Kenny Van Hummel.

“It was our plan today to have someone in the breakaway, so we wouldn’t need to work until the end of the race,” explained Greipel after his win. “Although we had a guy in the front it wasn’t a relaxed race for us, we had to pay attention the whole time. There was wind along the route and there were many turns.”

“When the escapees were caught, Jens [Debusschere] was still able to help us to move up in the peloton and set up a small lead-out train. Kenny Dehaes and Marcel Sieberg did a great job to lead me out. Every victory is important and it always gives you extra confidence. My next race will be in Berlin, next Sunday. We’ll aim for a bunch sprint there but it won’t be easy to control the race because we only start with six riders.”