Weekend Recap: Ster van Zwolle and GP de Lillers

So this is a bit late (busy weekend) but it stills needs to be reported about...

Ster van Zwolle

Rabobank Continental's Dylan van Baarle won in a spectacular fashion as he out sprinted his breakaway  companions and barely held off a charging peloton, that was lead home by Metec's Jeff Vermeulen. 

This win signals two things. First, it signals a comeback to form for van Baarle, who broke his hip last August, and is a big signal that his Olympia's Tour win was no fluke. Expect to see his name a lot more in the coming months. This race also showed that Rabobank Continental has come to play this year. Two UCI wins right out of the blocks by two big name riders (van der Lijke and van Baarle) and there will be more to come from the orange and blue squad.

Results

1. Dylan van Baarle (Rabobank Continental)
2. Marco Brus
3. Elmar Reinders (Metec Cyclingteam)
4. Jeff Vermeulen (Metec Cyclingteam)
5. Daniel McLay (Lotto-Belisol U23)
6. Maarten van Trijp (Rabobank Continental)
7. Mads Würtz Schmidt (CULT Energy)
8. Peter Schulting 
9. Johim Ariesen (Jo Plies)
10. Tino Thömel (NSP-Ghost)

Good performances by McLay and Schmidt (former Junior World TT champion and Junior Paris-Roubaix winner), the latter in his first race as an espoir.

GP de Lillers

The race unfolded very similar to last year but with a different winner raising his hands at the end. A group of 13 got away from the pack over the hills of northern France and in the final sprint, two-time winner Benoit Daeninck made it a triple, beating Olivier Pardini (Verandas Willems) in a photo finish  while Steve Tronet (BigMat-Auber93) rounded out the podium. The only espoir name in the breakaway was Etixx-iHNed strong man Louis Verhelst, who rode to 8th place.

Vegard Breen (Joker-Merida) lead the main peloton home, 41 seconds in arrears and 14th overall, with espoir riders Thomas Moses (Raleigh) and Magnus Cort Nielsen (CULT Energy) finishing 3rd and 7th in the bunch sprint, 16th and 20th overall.