Dylan Groenewegen and Mauro Schmid stormed to victory for Team Jayco AlUla in their respective national road race championships in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The five-time Tour de France stage winner, Dylan Groenewegen powered to the line to secure his second Dutch road race title, his first being in 2016.
The 2024 Dutch championships featured nine punchy circuits, before eight short local laps of Arnhem, covering a total of 198.5km. Groenewegen had the support of his loyal Team Jayco AlUla domestiques, Jan Maas and Elmar Reinders, who allowed him to arrive at the finish line fresh and able to unleash his world-class sprint to clinch a special victory.
Over in Switzerland, 24-year-old Mauro Schmid soloed to his first ever national title. The 2024 Team Jayco AlUla debutant has gone from strength to strength in recent months, showing the professional peloton his class and power.
The 183km race featured 12 laps on an undulating circuit around the outskirts of Geneva. Without any teammates, Schmid took the initiative to attack and used his time trial strength to comfortably take the victory 17 seconds ahead of Simon Pellaud.
Dylan Groenewegen:
¨It’s really nice to finish it like this. I was really convinced of my ability in the last kilometre. I am super happy, this is a jersey for a whole year, so that is nice. It was not very easy, especially not at the beginning of the year. The whole team rode so hard for this, the boys gave it their everything to make it come to a sprint.”
Mauro Schmid:
¨I am lost for words. I have good form at the moment but I still wasn´t really confident because the last two years I was super motivated and was maybe the strongest of the day but I lost my nerves and it´s also really difficult when you´re riding alone without team mates. This year I came into the race really relaxed and I was flying to Geneva this morning as I slept at home and was super calm. I tried to always be in front, especially with Tudor Pro Cycling having fifteen guys here and FDJ and Q36 with numbers too.¨
¨I knew it was a little bit of a gamble so somehow I ended up in the first break with eight or nine guys and four from Tudor, which was not ideal but ok. The group stopped working and I ended up in another group and the race was in pieces. Somehow, I ended up with one guy off the front with 80kms to go and he stopped working so I attacked with 50kms to go and went solo for two laps before some guys came across. What was left of the bunch was 10 seconds behind us on the last climb so I just went for it one last time and I could ride away. I think I just had really good legs the whole day and always had the race under control. I basically did the opposite of what I´ve done the last two years at the nationals.¨
2024 Dutch Road Race Championships 199kms:
1. Dylan Groenewegen (Team Jayco AlUla) 4:20:10
2. Olav Kooj ST
3. Ramon Sinkeldam ST
2024 Swiss Road Race Championships 183kms:
1. Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco AlUla) 4:07:24
2. Simon Pellaud +0:17
3. Stefan Bissegger +0:25
Photo: Sprint Cycling
Photo: Buccolik.ch
