A wet and dark spectacle in The Hague: Tour of Holland prologue won by Hayter

More than 20 years after the last edition of the Tour of the Netherlands, the Tour of Holland is finally back on the calendar as a true Dutch tour. Of course, the Renewi Tour often passes through our little country, but it is also finished in Belgium. However, with six stages through the Netherlands, there was plenty to enjoy.

The tour started with a prologue through The Hague. Four kilometers of twists and turns were made even more difficult by a BMX starting platform and the start time: the first rider, Stijn Daemen (VolkerWessels), began at 7 PM local time, when it was already dark. It was also raining, which, together with the fallen leaves on the asphalt, made the road really treacherously slippery.

That became clear very quickly when Jelle Bouma (Diftar) crashed. Stars such as Arnaud De Lie (Lotto), Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike), and Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step), who started right behind him, knew how difficult it would be. The latter started too early due to a defect in the BMX gate, which caused uncertainty about his final time.

In any case, he fell short of the best time, which was set by Nils Eekhoff (Picnic PostNL). De Lie, Kooij, and time trial specialist Alec Segaert (Lotto) also fell short, but 20-year-old Cameron Rogers—nephew of three-time world time trial champion Michael Rogers—was more than 5 seconds faster! Not surprising, considering that last year he won the prologue of the Tour of Austria by beating Filippo Ganna(!).

The young Australian set the tone. Big names such as Christophe Laporte (Visma | Lease a Bike), Dutch champion Daan Hoole (Lidl-Trek), and Yves Lampaert (Soudal Quick-Step) were left behind, and world time trial champion Jakob Söderqvist—Rogers' teammate—was only 16 hundredths of a second behind.

Huub Artz (Intermarché-Wanty) came close but had to settle for third place. Things were looking better and better, but there were still a few specialists among the last starters, including Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step), Johan Price-Pejtersen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe).

Hayter, the British champion, seemed to be the biggest challenger among the last starters. Things almost went wrong at the start, but in the end, it didn't matter: he finished just 28 hundredths behind the Australian. Price-Pejtersen and Van Poppl fell short, so the orange leader's jersey went to Hayter.