Dylan Groenewegen sprinted to victory on the longest stage of this year’s Tour de France in Chalon-Sur-Saone today, while Giulio Ciccone managed to keep the yellow jersey.
The Jumbo-Visma rider won his first stage at this year’s La Grande Boucle after lunging towards the line in a bunch sprint to beat Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) into second.
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) completed the podium.
“Every time I sprint against Caleb it’s always very close,” said the stage winner.
“He’s a very good sprinter but today I could beat him and I’m very happy with this result. Today, my team worked so hard for me and we took the win so I’m very happy with this win.”
Groenewegen said they took the lead very early, but felt that it was a good thing.
“It was a tight final with some hectic corners. Then we closed in and got boxed in with 500m and I thought I was boxed out, but went with 250m to go and saw that Caleb was coming, but it was enough.”
Soon after the start of the 230km stage Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) and Yoann Offredo (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) were the leaders who ultimately rode their way to a maximum gap of five minutes.
The duo, who spent most of the day in each other’s company, were caught by the peloton with 12.3km to the line.
