Sebastian Langeveld realized a dream when he won today's Dutch road race championships after an impressive solo effort. Having always known that he had to arrive alone at the finish, the Garmin-Sharp rider had even done Wednesday's time trial just to prepare for his solo attack.

Going into the Dutch road race championships, the odds were on Giant-Shimano or Belkin to exploit their numerical superiority to come away with the title. However, Sebastian Langeveld defied expectations and denied the major favourites the win that they had been looking for.

Langeveld joined a strong 11-rider group that emerged in the finale and had teammate Dylan van Baarle for company. With Lars Boom and Maarten Tjallingii from Belkin and Brian Bulgac, Tom Dumoulin and Ramon Sinkeldam from Giant, both the major teams had riders in the group but they failed to control an unstoppable Langeveld.

Langeveld made his move from afar and from there no one could deny him the win. His chasers were all caught by the peloton in which Belkin were doing their utmost to bring him back but they failed to do so. At the finish line, Langeveld still had a 33-second advantage and could take his first national road race title. Behind, Niki Terstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) beat Wesley Kreder (Wanty) in the sprint for the minor positions, meaning that both Belkin and Giant left the race empty-handed.

"I'm so glad I finally won the championships," he said, having previously finished both second and third. "I've been close a number of times. I went to the championship without pressure. I just wanted to see how it went. I did not ride with the stress of the past few years. On the last lap I got all the remaining energy squeezed out and I rode to the finish. And finally I have the red-white-blue jersey. " 

"It was the first time I participated in it [the TT championships where he was second] and it was not without reason. I only wanted to train my ability ride on my own because I knew that if I wanted to win here, I had to do it alone.

"I launched the attack at an inconvenient time. I gave everything to get a gap. When I had it, I thought it was a good point to get clear because there were not many fresh riders anymore. It would only get dangerous for me if Niki Terpstra, Lars Boom and Tom Dumoulin would join forces to bring me back, but I knew that it was very unlikely that they would do that." 

Before Langeveld started his solo attack, a large number of riders had hit the deck. Garmin-Sharp was setting the pace and had three riders on the right side of the split. Belkin was the big victim as only Boom made was ahead.

"I don't think it made a difference," Langeveld told Wielerflits. "All the strong riders were in our group. And not everyone crashes. Dumoulin even managed to jump across to out group. I don't think this crash decided the race."

Garmin-Sharp started the race with only four riders but had to chase hard as they had missed the early break.

"Tom-Jelte [Slagter] and I slept together in Almelo yesterday," Langeveld said. ""You have always ridden for me this year, tomorrow I will ride for you," he told me. "He did a grandiose work, but I won't forget Dylan van Baarle. I have a lot og people to thank.

"It's a tough sprint on Kuiperberg. I was not sure I could win there. But I'm super happy with my race and this title. I still have to realize it."

Tomorrow the Garmin-Sharp roster for the Tour de France will be announced and Langeveld made it clear that he will be part of it.

"I go to the Tour de France purely to be there in the first week," he said. "As a classics specialist I can be of great value when it comes to keep our leader Andrew Talansky out of trouble on the cobbles. Breaks that stay away often have to survive pretty big climbs. I am not a good enough climber to be there. But if I get a chance, I will not miss it."