Team Jayco AlUla sprinter Dylan Groenewegen claimed another podium finish, his second of the week in Belgium, after taking third place today at the one-day UCI 1.1 level race Gooikse Pijl.
In the 20th edition of the race, a small group attempted to stay away and contest the win but after another strong performance from the squad, keeping the race under control with the help of other team, the six leaders were brought back on the final lap, ensuring that the race ended with another bunch sprint opportunity.
The tension then increased as the peloton split in two on the last lap, but as the race returned back together again, Groenewegen was led into position by his teammates, ready to launch his sprint for the line and challenge for the victory in the 199km event.
The speed was there once again, however Jasper Philipsen managed to edge out the Team Jayco AlUla rider to steal the win and force Groenewegen to settle for another podium finish.
Dylan Groenewegen – 3rd place
“The team was really good today, if you don’t win there is always something to discuss afterwards but I think we did a really good job and for that I am proud of the boys. We are really motivated for the next opportunity to get that victory, we have been close now with second place in Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen the other day and now today third place. There still more races left so we have more opportunities.”
Dave McPartland – Sport Director
“Today we had the Gooikse Pijl race in Belgium, 200 kilometers and the guys managed to start well. We had a little breakaway leave after 40 after 60 kilometres and we contributed to the chase today alongside the other sprint teams like Quickstep, Jumbo Visma and Alpecin In the final we brought them back with one lap to go so around 21km from the finish and then from that point on things got quite quite aggressive obviously with a lot of teams trying to force something down the road and anticipate the sprinters. We had Luke Durbridge and Campbell Stewart there and with Stewart we had one of the fastest guys in that group of around 25 guys sailing towards the finish inside the last 15km.
We’re actually got a group on the last little climb of the day, we got a group across there with Dylan and the rest of the team. We went into final with five guys and we did a good really good lead out and Dylan ran third, just beaten on the line. It was a really good sprint from Dylan and it just proves you know that he is one of the fastest three or four sprinters in the world. I think the guys the way they handle that themselves during the day, controlling and then the aggressive final there they did the really good team ride and we can be proud of our third place.”
2023 Gooikse Pijl result:
- Jasper Philipsen 4:19:53
- Olav Kooij ST
- Dylan Groenewegen ST
