After a first set of three stages in which the twisty and rolling parcours, today it the turn of a 25 km long time trial. It was a very flat route without any major technical sections. It was a stage marked on our roadbook as we expected to be up there fighting for the win again. The result was not too bad at the end as Daan Hoole rode through the route to claim the seventh fastest time of the day, while Marco Frigo rounded up the Top 10 in a great showing that it’s only the preview of bigger things to come in the mountains. 

Daan Hoole, despite finishing with the seventh-fastest time on the day, the current U23 Dutch National TT Champion was not satisfied with his performance: 
“It was a hard time trial, not really technical, but I felt quite good, nothing too high or too low, so can say that I did my best. But despite giving it all, I still feel a bit disappointed as I expected more. At the end of the day, I was just not fast enough”. 

Meanwhile, at the Czech Republic, the well-known U23 Nations Cup Race, Course de la Paix, was getting down to its final stage and Wessel Krul was in the mix again. The fast Dutchman collected two-second places in reduced bunch sprints and narrowly missed on the Top 10 in the opening prologue, which accounts for a very satisfying performance overall and the Points Jersey. Dries de Pooter was also in the race defending the colors of the Belgian National team, and he took fourth in today’s stage that together with a sixth-place earlier on, makes it also a great run for the youngster

Wessel Krul weights on the Course de la Paix:
“I’m happy with the confirmation I can peform well at this level. I think that I can extract a lot of positive things from these past four days and gain a lot of confidence. This proves that I am on the right the right track, but ultimately I also want to win, so there something extra that I need to improve on”.