Sam Welsford and Team DSM sprint to strong 2nd place on final stage of ZLM Tour

After kicking off the week in style with the 1-2 victory, Team DSM just missed out on finishing the ZLM Tour the way it started. On the final day of the race, Sam Welsford sprinted into second place, after his teammates brought him into the final in good position.

As in the days before, a pancake flat day waited for the riders with the Dutch winds always an unpredictable factor for the race. When a breakaway of three got clear, things stayed relatively calm in the peloton. Coming closer to the finale, Team DSM helped to close the gap to the escapees, while looking after each other and saving energy for the fast finish. When the break was caught, some riders tried their luck with a late attack, but everything was brought back together. With a sprint on the cards, Welsford took 2nd place; a nice conclusion to five days of racing on home soil for the team. Sam Welsford and Nils Eekhoff both finished on the podium in the general classification and Alex Edmondson got fourth in the end, while Team DSM won the team classification.

After the race, Welsford stated: “Today was another tricky day with small roads and a local lap that was quite technical leading into the final. The boys did a pretty good job, riding in front as a team and Patrick did a great job bringing us into the final. I had John in front of me who looked after me for the final. Unfortunately, the boys got a bit swamped and couldn’t really do the final lead-out, so I had to surf a bit in the final kilometres and came from pretty far back in the sprint. Good to finish second on the day and go second, third and fourth in the GC. This week was a good showing of our shape leading into the next races. We just missed a few little things, that we take away from here and do better for the races coming up.” 

Team DSM coach Roy Curvers added: “We went into the final stage with the plan to be in control in the final and bring Sam in the best possible position to sprint for the win. Unfortunately, the guys lost each other a bit in the final kilometres and Sam had to come from too far back, just coming short for the win. We will take some learning points out of this week and work hard on being back on the top step very soon!”