Escapee Bentley Niquet-Olden races to victory in the Tour de Taiwan, Dutch climbers show off

Bentley Niquet-Olden has won the third stage of the Tour de Taiwan. The Australian from CCACHE x Par Küp was part of an early breakaway and beat his peers in the race. Adne van Engelen, who had joined the leading group on the descent, finished fifth. Mason Hollyman managed to keep his leader’s jersey (only).

On the third day of the Tour de Taiwan, the riders were presented with a typical transition stage. The opening stage had no big climbs and the final was also flat, but in the middle of the stage there was a big climb of eleven kilometers at 4.5%.

Van Engelen and Nijssen try to cross
Before reaching the bottom of this slope we saw one attack after another. After a long time, nine men were able to drive. This includes professionals such as Davide De Cassan (Polti Kometa) and Antoine Debons (Corratec-Vini Fantini). Once on the biggest climb of the day, two riders from the peloton tried to cross. The two Dutch horsemen, viz. Riders Kenny Nijssen (Universe CT) and Adne van Engelen (Roojai Bima) went to battle together.

Nijssen was responsible for most of the climb, but ultimately failed to make the connection. Van Engelen succeeded in this. The lightweights were joined by the remaining eight escapees shortly after the summit. On a small slope, about twenty kilometers before the finish, the two riders in front crossed the sea. So we started the last final with seven riders. They were able to stay in front of the peloton, where the classification leader of Israel-Premier Tech Mason Hollyman increased the speed significantly.

Sprint and seven
Because the speed was also high in the front, no one managed to get out. So we got a sprint with seven. In the race, Bentley Niquet-Olden showed himself to be faster than De Cassan and Debons. Van Engelen finished fifth.

The peloton crossed the line not long after. Fourteen seconds after Niquet-Olden was able to signal his victory, Matteo Malucelli managed to win the group race. Mason Hollyman was also in this suit and thus retained his leader’s jersey. Yuma Koishi, one of the escapees, came within four seconds of him.