Dutch sprinter Dylan Groenewegen blasted to third place today at the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen in Belgium, after a hard 175km race. The result highlights the 29-year-old’s late season consistency with the result today making it his fifth podium finish in the last month.
 
After a breakaway of seven riders animated most of the day, Team BikeExchange-Jayco took responsibility, contributing to the chase to keep the gap at a controllable distance along with other teams and worked to bring the race back together for a bunch sprint.

Taking over the workload in the final, lead-out man Luka Mezgec helped to position Groenewegen for the fast and furious sprint and the Tour de France stage winner surfed the wheels with his classy style. In the end, Groenewegen had to settle for third place, concluding his impressive and successful 2022 season.
 
Dylan Groenewegen
“I only really felt good for the last 10 km, we had made a good plan and we saw today that Elmar Reinder, Luka Mezgec and I are getting better racing together and you always hope to reward the work of the team with a victory, which unfortunately didn’t work out today because I ended up on the outside in the last corner. All-in-all we did a good job and it is nice to end the season again with a podium.”

Tristan Hoffmann – Sport Director
“Today was a hard race, from the start seven guys went in front to make the breakaway and we helped to control the race with two other teams. We had Luke Durbridge riding at the front for us, then in the final, Jack Bauer took over and the other guys put Dylan in a good position. Unfortunately, two riders were a little bit faster in the sprint, so it was third for Dylan. In the end, it was a good day of racing, and it was the final race of the season for most of the riders here so nice to end with a podium finish.”
 
2022 Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen results:
1. Tim Merlier
2. Mark Cavendish
3. Dylan Groenewegen (Team BikeExchange-Jayco)

Photo: Getty Images