A strong day in the breakaway for the Dutchman.
Pepijn Reinderink started the Czech Tour doing what he does best: going on the attack, animating the stage and forcing the peloton to work really hard in order to bring the breakaway back and keep things together in the finale for a bunch sprint.
Soudal Quick-Step’s 24-year-old made his move just 20 kilometers into the stage, and together with three other men, managed to open a 2:20 gap on the field. While at the front of the race, Pepijn won the first two climbs of the day and scored points also on the third and last hill of the stage, making sure that he would don the jersey after the stage. With the chasers breathing down their necks in the final 30 kilometers, Reinderink launched another attack, but despite his best efforts, he got reeled in with around 20 kilometers to go.
Pepijn, who kicked off his second part of the season at the Czech Tour, was content with taking the lead in the climbing classification of the race as he continued to build his form for the next couple of months.
We wanted to be in the breakaway today, because there aren’t many sprint teams here.
“I managed to get in the front group but they didn’t give us a lot of room so we knew pretty quickly it would be difficult to get away. I haven’t raced for a while because of an illness after the Dauphiné, but I’m more than happy to be back and feeling good. Getting the KOM jersey is always nice, but personally I see this race as a good first step towards the coming races, and in the coming days I’ll try to help Mauri and Mikel as good as possible with the GC ambitions”, Reinderink explained after the stage.
Photo credit: ©Czech Tour
©Dario Belingheri / getty Images
