Axel Zingle (Visma-Lease a Bike) earned the victory on the first day of 4 Jours de Dunkerque, taking advantage of an unorganised sprint train by Israel-Premier Tech in the closing 200 metres into Amiens.
Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic PostNL) trailed the Frenchman for second place while Stian Fredheim (Uno-X Mobility) grabbed third, keeping Pascal Ackermann (Israel-Premier Tech) off the podium by one position.
A five-rider breakaway still had hopes to remain clear on the first passage of the finish line with 24km to go – Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers), Luca de Meester, Gil Gelders, Danny van der Tuuk, and Per Strand Hagenes. With 6.2km to go, their day ended, and the sprint teams went to work. However, Ackermann could not find the wheel of his leadout man and Zingle used the slipstream to score his first victory of the season.
Zingle crashed on Tuesday at Classique Dunkerque, a new 1.Pro race ahead of 4 Jours de Dunkerque stage race, and remnants of a tough day across northern France lingered with a left leg bandage.
He told French broadcasters after the race that he was happy to rebound from the crash and secure the leader’s jersey, though the team was focused on individual stages rather than the GC.
“I’m not the fastest sprinter, but I’m good at positioning,” was his short recap on taking the victory on the opening day of five days in the stage race.
The five riders in the breakaway scooped up enough bonus points to position them directly behind Zingle in the GC standings, with Swift second on GC, two seconds back, and Hagenes third, three seconds back.
More to come…
Results
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