Genuine hat-trick with WorldTour icing on the cake: Groenewegen explains Rockets’ success in Belgium

Groenewegen himself can see just how well things are going for the Rockets, and for him personally. “Yes, it’s been a good week so far in Belgium. It was also typical Dutch and Belgian weather,” the winner said with a laugh in the flash interview. “It was a really hard race with the wind, and in the end we also got some rain. It was a tough finish.”

For a moment, it looked as though the ever-alert Amsterdam native might miss the decisive move because of a mechanical issue in the finale. But he came back and still managed to beat Jasper Philipsen in the sprint. “We weren’t very lucky with the puncture either, but we stayed calm. In the final kilometres we did a really good job, and the team put me in a good position. Philipsen went fairly early, and I was able to follow him and come over the top.”

Why have the Rockets looked so unbeatable in Belgium this week? Earlier on, largely thanks to the prolific Groenewegen, they also won the Bredene-Koksijde Classic and the GP Jean-Pierre Monseré. “I don’t know, we’re enjoying ourselves, especially when we win. That’s great motivation, and we’ve got a good mix of young riders and experienced guys. Now we’ve got some victories, and that’s really nice.”

Sprint coach Marcel Kittel was not forgotten either. “He is definitely part of it, but it’s also the whole team and the way we’re building this together. We trigger each other, and that’s really nice. We’ve found each other well in that, especially with the young group believing in it so strongly. Like you say, they pick it up very quickly. If you enter the final 300 metres with three riders left, that’s incredibly impressive. They are learning that experience very fast. Now we’re getting the reward by winning, which is really nice.”

At the start of the day, Groenewegen was not quite in the right place. He had to make up a minute at one stage. “That was my own fault. I was too far back, then there was a crash and the race split. We also lost Elmar there, with some pain in his knee. But we reacted really well, and the guys brought me back perfectly.” After that, it was mainly a matter of warming up again. “I’m freezing cold, but I think that’ll come back in a minute.”