Team DSM scores amazing 1-2 in ZLM Tour prologue, 4 riders in top 10

Nils Eekhoff has crowned a strong performance from Team DSM at the opening prologue of the ZLM Tour, storming to his first professional victory. The entire team showed their speed on the 6.6 kilometre long parcours around Heinkenszand, with four riders finishing in the top 10 of the day. Alex Edmondson was second behind his teammate Eekhoff, Sam Welsford in fifth and Development Team DSM rider Patrick Eddy rounded off the strong team performance in ninth place on the first evening of the race.

The team left their mark from the beginning on with Development Team DSM rider Patrick Eddy moving into provisional second place. A few moments later, Nils Eekhoff was able to move into the hot seat with a time of 7 minutes and 27 seconds. After that, Sam Welsford and Alex Edmonson came close to the time of the Dutch rider, but nobody was faster on the technical parcours and Eekhoff could secure a fantastic win.

After taking his first pro win, Nils Eekhoff said: “I waited quite a long time for my first pro win, so I’m really happy. I went pretty deep. There was tailwind so I went super fast, but near the finish there was a headwind. That made it quite tough, but I pulled through it well. I trained hard the last weeks and felt good – and prologues suit me. But super happy to take it home.”

Team DSM coach Roy Curvers added: “We saw a dedicated team today who were all determined to go full; but a TT is a complicated thing when it comes to the science behind it, and knowing we have a lot of people putting in big efforts on this side, bringing a result home like this is a big compliment for all involved.”