🎥 Zonneveld backs Van der Hoorn after bizarre protest: "Anyone jumping in front of cyclists is a complete idiot"

Van der Hoorn had made his intentions clear before the stage even started. He wanted to be in the break. “Right from the start I gave it a go, following Joshua Tarling. But the pace uphill was just a bit too much and I didn’t make it. When the first move got reeled back in, I tried again. Ending up in a two-man break wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

“I thought let’s give it a shot anyway,” said Van der Hoorn, who along with Paleni had to briefly stop after the major crash in the peloton. “I don’t think that really changed much in the end. I wouldn’t say we would have made it otherwise, but before that we were just riding steady. If we had been suffering, it would’ve helped our chances. But at that point it was more of a controlled effort. Almost like a recovery ride so we didn’t need time to recover from it.”

“The gap was only around fifty seconds so it was never a lot,” he added. Still, Van der Hoorn and Paleni kept pushing and looked to have a real shot. “I didn’t see any time gaps and wasn’t getting any updates through the earpiece. We just rode full gas and figured we’d find out soon enough if it was going to be enough. We were pretty well matched so it turned into a solid two-man time trial.”

“I heard it was around twenty seconds in the last few kilometers, but I told him we’d just keep riding to the line and see what happens,” Van der Hoorn said. “Then with three kilometers to go, those protesters suddenly stepped onto the road. Out of nowhere, someone was standing right in front of me with some kind of tape and who knows what else.”

“I came to a complete stop. I rode straight through that tape but had to stop because they were blocking the road,” he sighed. “Trying to get going again when you’re already completely spent definitely had an impact. I don’t think we would have made it anyway, but it’s a shame it had to end like that. I was fully blocked, had to brake hard, and that probably cost me around ten seconds.”

The Dutchman also recounted the incident in the podcast In de Waaier. "I was terrified at that moment. You're going full throttle, the lactic acid is burning behind your ears, and then suddenly, someone runs onto the road with a kind of black hose and tape. Fortunately, I could ride through the tape, but it's a shame to slam on the brakes when you're going 55 km per hour."

"I had no idea what was happening at that moment," Van der Hoorn continues about the bizarre incident. "At first, he just walked towards me. Of course, at that moment, you don't know what someone like that is up to. It was actually a very sad end to a beautiful day."

Zonneveld didn't know what he was seeing at the time either. "After all the protests, this was perhaps to be expected. And everyone has the right to protest. But if you want to jump in front of cyclists, you're just a complete idiot."