The Jumbo Visma team had nine riders at the start line of the Dutch Road Championships in Drenthe on Sunday, but not even the full squad could match the strength of Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin Phoenix) on the 7.3 km circuit. Timo Roosen, third behind Sunweb's Nils Eekhoff and the team's highest finisher, said, "There is nothing we can do about Van der Poel."

World cyclo-cross champion Van der Poel pulled away from the rest of the pack after an attack by Eekhoff, then attacked on the steep cobbled "Col du VAM" with 44km to go and rocketed away.

"Van der Pol was helpless. 'Pascal [Eenkhorn] tried to follow him many times. It was very brave. But this was the best we could do. I don't think we can blame ourselves. The best won. I am happy to be on the podium. On the last climb we decided who was going to be third."

The Dutch road championships were held at the circuit in Drenthe, with the course limited to the area around the landfill.

Heavy rain early in the race forced officials to shorten the race by two laps, but the uphill climb of up to 22% and an average of over 9% made it an exhausting race. Only 17 racers finished the race as officials pulled away from the peloton to prevent laps being lost.

"We wanted to get away with the breakaway group and send our strongest guys there instead of chasing the Alpecin Phoenix," Rosen told Wielerfritz.

In the first half of the race, the plan seemed to work, but Van der Pol dropped everyone in a superhuman effort. 'It turned out to be a very grueling race. At one point a lot of the pack got away, but at the end the best group emerged. I think it was very clear."

Van der Pol said he attacked to prevent the Jumbo Visma riders from coming back. He said, "I attacked a couple of times, but I knew the cobblestones were the best because they were the hardest. I saw the group behind me coming back with three more Jumbo Visma riders, so I made a decision. Then there would be eight riders in front of me, and I didn't want that to happen, so I made a decisive move there."

"It was actually pretty quick. Of course I was hoping that the other guys from the team would follow along with me, not the Jumbos, but it was just me, and soon I was 30 seconds ahead.

With only his brother David and Oscar Riesebeck as teammates, Van der Pol was at a tactical disadvantage, but he thanked the Alpecin-Phoenix duo.

"Oscar was really strong, but David was also jumping a lot in the group. It was too difficult and took too much energy to come back on this lap. It's a victory not only for me but also for them."