Dylan Groenewegen disappointed after another missed opportunity in the Tour de France

Kudos to Groenewegen for getting off the bus to tell his story of the sprint, which for him wasn't really a sprint, to NOS. “It's a bit disappointing, that's all I can say. We did well overall. Three kilometers from the finish, we were in a good position heading toward a roundabout.”

“It was a bit slippery on that roundabout and I lost my balance a little,” he continued. “Then I lost some momentum, and after that crash, it was all over. Everything after eighth place was already decided. I was too far back and lost those places on those slippery sections. There’s not much you can do about that, because we were where we needed to be.”

So this Tour is not working out quite as planned for Groenewegen. "The previous times I was just out of position, but so far it just isn't happening. It couldn't be any worse than this," he says, referring to the rainy conditions in Wednesday's finish town, Valence.

Groenewegen has already won in Paris, but doesn't expect to be able to repeat that in 2025. “The chances are slim. It's been Tim Merlier twice and Jonathan Milan twice, so those are the fastest men of the year. I can't change that now.”

“Like everyone else, you work really hard for this, you prepare for months, and you're away from home a lot for the big goal,” explains the sprinter. “That goal was to win. Everything seemed to be going well. I was a bit under the weather at the start, but that wasn't the case in the last sprints. We have to evaluate where it went wrong. It's tough and you want more, but again, there's nothing I can do about it.”