As the first of three stages that will favor the sprinters, the opening day of the Eneco Tour smiled on Elia Viviani (Sky).  Because he was the day’s winner, the Italian sprinter also grabbed the leader’s jersey of this race that is prominent on the WorldTour calendar.

For its part, IAM Cycling perfectly executed their guidelines that were established in the team’s morning meeting, and protected the team’s sprinter, Jonas Van Genechten, before positioning him for the sprint. Van Genechten won a sprint stage at the Tour de Wallonie a short time ago, and today managed a strong 5th place among a bevy of pure sprinters who were going full gas.

With a 200 kilometer transfer south in the Netherlands still ahead on the team bus, Jonas Van Genechten was keeping himself grounded when reviewing his top-5 performance for the day. 

“I am reassured by this 5th place, but I can do better.  I recently won a stage at Wallonie, and I am well prepared for this race.  The team has done a great job for me, but we are not yet pitch perfect.  At this level of racing, the details become even more crucial, and I am confident that we can do much better at the next sprint finish. 

"The race today was very nervous in the last sixty kilometers.  The team paid a heavy price with crashes, but luckily there were no severe injuries.  Then we still managed to turn it on again, and I enjoyed a lot of great help to position me for the finale.”

Rik Verbrugghe, directeur sportif along with Thierry Marichal, was also satisfied with what he saw from his team during the day. 

“In the morning meeting, we talked about going for the sprinter’s stages, but also about paying attention to the general classification.  So it was essential to protect Jonas Van Genechten and Matthias Brändle.  With a time trial that will suit him well, Matthias Brändle really does have a good chance to win the race. 

"Today the team returned to racing, and everything did not go perfectly.  So this 5th place for Jonas gives us the chance to correct our little mistakes in the next two stages in order to aim for a victory.”