Peter Lenderink was the best in Axel

Dutchman Peter Lenderink won 33rd edition of the Int. Junioren Driedaagse van Axel (2.1). Second place went to Germany Jan Tschernoster and the third to another Dutchman Bram Welten.

Final podium with all the jerseys winners (photo: cyclingsite.be)

On the first day of competition the cyclists had to face a less than 100km stage from Sluiskill to Axel. The riders went through the six sections of cobblestones, which were decisive for the stage results. Jurjen van der Velde went into solo breakaway in the early kilometers of the race but was caught up. On the last lap at the front was a group of sixteen riders. Five of them made a counter attack: Jorn Buning, Dennis van Leeuwen, Andreas Jeppersen, Max Kanter and Bob Olieslage. They worked well together and kept the small gap to the rest of leading group almost untill the finish. The fugitives were, however, overtaken almost at the end of the stage and sprint from the front group won the Belgian Dennis Delmotte, which was also the first leader of the race.

Dennis Delmotte winning the first stage (photo: cyclingsite.be)

On the second day of competition for riders faced a short time trial in the morning and stage around the town of Axel later in the afternoon.

The morning time trial won Senne Leysen from Belgium, bronze medalist in this year's Belgian National Championships in time trial, ahead of Peter Lenderink and German rider, Jan Tschernoster. The leader after the first day, Dennis Delmotte has lost nearly a minute and went down in the overall standings to ninth place. The new leader was Lenderink.

Dennis Delmotte during the time trial (photo: cyclingsite.be)

The afternoon stage began with a series of accidents before neutralization. Then we had another crash ... and a few accidents. Rainy conditions with cobblestones effectively split the peloton into smaller groups, which, however, in the final phase of the stage began to connect, and at less than 10km from the finish line we had a big peleton at the front. Less than 5km from the finish line, just before the beginning of the last section of cobbles,  two riders attacked from the main group: Thimo Willems and Tohmas Joseph, who managed to keep the lead until the finish line. Willems won. Sprint third place in the peloton won Enzo Wouters. Lenderink retained the leader's jersey.

Last "queen stage" traditionally started from the accident. This time the leader Peter Lenderink went down but quickly returned to the peloton. Andreas Stokbro, Aleksandr Martyshev and Jack Maddux went into the breakway of the day and kept the lead for most of the stage and collected the points in the climber competition. Martyshev as the last man from the breakway at the fron but was caught by the main group before the beginning of the last lap. Alone attacked Brent Briesen, who held about 20 seconds over the peloton but was caught. Thimo Willems and Wouter Persoon counterattacked from the peloton and managed to stay away from the leading group with yellow jersey. This time Willems lost a two man sprint and it was Persoon who won the stage.

Peter Lenderink leading the group on hill (photo: cyclingsite.be)

Wouter Persoon (photo: cyclingsite.be)

Lenderink arrived in the group with a loss of 34 seconds and kept the lead in the overall standings. The second place thanks to it's excellent time trial took Germany Jan Tschernoster and the third Bram Welten, who also won two jerseys: for the best young rider and for a sprinter.

Full results:

Former speed skater Lenderink was my favorite from the Dutchies to win in this race and did not disappoint me. After several victories in amateur races Dutchman confirmed his class on the international arena. It wasy pretty impressive for him to kept the lead in the race during the queen stage despite the many attacks on his position.

Jan Tschernoster showed up in the race from uci calendar for the first time this season, but has already won  in the criterium Frühjahrsrennen in Herford and finished third in the time trial Junioren Cottbus, where  Lennard Kamna won. Also it was a great race for Bram Welten. Two jerseys and a podium place in GC is a great results for youth rider.