In their first race in Germany, Roompot Orange Peloton achieved a handful of noticeable results. Dylan Groenewegen delivered a strong performance in the Bayern Rundfahrt with a place just off the podium in the final stage. Team leader Boogerd looked back with satisfaction on the five-day racein Southern Germany: "We have yet again showed ourselves properly. We almost participated in every break and animated the finales. Although it remains unfortunate that these races are often locked by the interest of the sprint teams."
In the opening stage, the young sprinter was forced to break in the last 100 meters and could not do better than 15th in the stage won by Sam Bennett. By attacking, Groenewegen's teammates Huub Duijn, Mike Terpstra and Sjoerd Van Ginneken had made the finale hard. A day later in Selb Groenewegen was 10th. Here John Degenkolb was the fastest. "Those who did better, took more risks in the finale which was too dangerous. Dylan is not afraid and Jesper Asselman brought him into a good position, but it is logical that he is no match against the winner of Sanremo and Roubaix," said Boogerd.
On Friday, Marc de Maar was in the spotlight. The Dutchman was in the break of the day and made a solo attempt with 12km to go. He received the combativity prize and was on the podium next to winner Bennett. In the time trial on Saturday Berden de Vries had what he described as 'power in the legs." The strong neo-pro finished a nice 10th in the race against the clock in which Alex Dowsett was fastest.
The Briton eventually also won the overall classification in Bayern. His leadership was still at risk when a group of escapees with Huub Duijn took enough advantage to take over the yellow jersey from Dowsett. After more than 170 kilometers in the forefront of the race Duijn did a solo effort, but the sprint teams brought everything back together in Nuremberg. Degenkolb got his second stage win. "It was nice to see that Dylan could do it right," team leader Boogerd looked back. "I had asked Berden, Mike, Sjoerd and Jesper to really try to form a train. With a 4th place as a result. Groenewegen shows that he deserves extra support from his teammates."
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