Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe’s Jordi Meeus sprinted to victory after receiving a perfect leadout from Danny Van Poppel on the final stage of 4 Jours de Dunkerque, while teammate Laurence Pithie won the overall stage race title for the first time in his career.
After catching a three-man breakaway on the eighth and final lap of the traditional Dunkerque circuit, teams battled for position until Van Poppel took over, setting a fast pace in the last kilometre. Meeus waited until the last moment to jump and take the win, with Van Poppel holding on for second. Gianluca Pollefliet (Decathlon CMA CGM) rounded out the podium.
Pithie topped the general classification from start to finish, after winning stage 1 in Laon. The New Zealander survived multiple attacks on stages 3 and 4, and he faced more adversity on the final stage with a crash early in the stage, a puncture and bike change inside of five kilometres to go and being caught up behind a crash in the finale.
Stage 4 winner Natnael Tesfazion (Movistar) finished second overall, seven seconds down, while stage 3 winner Rasmus Tiller (Uno-X Mobility) placed third, at 11 seconds in arrears.
“I flatted with 5 kilometres to go, so switched bikes with Callum [Thornley]. That was great because I could make it back into the peloton. I tried to come to the front with my team, but a crash in the final kilometre, it was really close to taking me down," Pithie said after the race.
"I didn’t do anything [to help with Jordi’s win] but I am happy for him."
Pithie will not be starting at the Tour de France this year but will use the month of July to rest.
"I want to recuperate well because I also crashed today, my back hurts and so does my knee. I crashed at the start of the stage so it wasn’t an easy day today for me."
How it unfolded
On a hot day in France, 104 riders lined up in Saint-Omer for the traditional final stage of the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, a 181.3km Stage 5 heading north toward the finishing circuits in Dunkerque.
Three riders - Louis Chaleil (Decathlon CMA CGM), Similien Hamon (CIC Pro Cycling Academy and Théo Delacroix (St Michel-Preference Home -Auber93) - formed the breakaway, which was kept on a relatively tight leash.
The gap hovered around the one-minute mark as Hamon led the trio across the line for the first of the eight 8.5km circuits, raced clockwise.
The situation remained the same for the next three laps as Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe for race leader Laurence Pithie, and the sprinters’ teams such as Tudor for Arvid de Kleijn and EF Education-EasyPost, stayed at the front of the peloton, working for the expected bunch sprint.
With five laps to go, Daniel Årnes (Van Rysel-Roubaix) went on a solo flyer, but his move was always doomed, as the peloton reeled him back.
Meanwhile, the peloton continued to slowly eat away at the gap, from 37 seconds with 24km to go to 17 seconds at the start of the penultimate lap. Hamon was the first to fall off the pace as the last two break riders still had a few seconds as they started the final lap, but the peloton was back together with 4 kilometres to go.
Teams tried to organise at the front, with Red Bull and Tudor on the left, NSN on the right, all jostling for position as the speed cranked up another level.
Unibet Rose Rockets took the front, stringing out the peloton under the red kite, where soon after, a chasing Pithie was caught behind a crash on a tricky corner. At the front, Danny van Poppel took over to lead out Jordi Meeus to victory, before holding onto second himself and completing an excellent day for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
Results
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