Dylan Groenewegen


Dylan Groenewegen is a Dutch professional road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Pro team Unibet Rose Rockets. He has won six individual Tour de France stages and one team time trial stage. He has also won the Dutch National Road Race Championships, five stages of the Tour of Norway, five stages of the Tour of Britain and three stages of Paris–Nice. In 2020, Groenewegen received considerable attention for causing a serious crash at the Tour de Pologne, which put Fabio Jakobsen in hospital, and for which Groenewegen received a nine-month ban from racing.

Early life

Groenewegen was born to a working-class family in Amsterdam. His grandfather, Ko Zieleman, assembled custom bike frames of which Groenewegen received his first bike at the age of seven. Zieleman owned a shop selling bike frames, a trade that his father had started in 1928, which Groenewegen's father, Gerrie, has continued. At the age of 17, Groenewegen went to a trade school in order to follow his previous three generations as a frame-builder.

Career

Pre-World Tour

Groenewegen said in an interview that he had to choose between or to join in 2014. He chose the former as they gave him "a lot of confidence".

LottoNL–Jumbo (2016–2021)

In October 2015, Groenewegen announced that he had signed with, on an initial three-year deal from 2016.

2016

In June, Groenewegen won the Dutch National Road Race Championships after outsprinting Wouter Wippert. During a review of Groenewegen's Bianchi Oltre XR4 bicycle, Simon Richardson of Global Cycling Network said he is "a very easy rider to work with" in respect to the mechanics. Groenewegen won stage 4 of the Tour of Britain.

2017

In the Dubai Tour, which ran from late January into early February, Groenewegen came second in the general classification, having finished second in stages 1 and 2. Despite narrowly missing out on victory in these areas, he did win the overall youth classification. On 28 April, Groenewegen won the first stage of the Tour de Yorkshire. The stage, which was long from Bridlington to Scarbrough, came down to a photo finish where he held off Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan. He came fourth on the second stage which finished in Harrogate. He continued this success when in May, he won two stages at the Tour of Norway.
The Tour de France started well for Groenewegen when he came fifth on stage 2, the first flat stage. He produced two more top-10 results in the first week, with sixth in stages 6 and 7. After two mountain stages and a rest day in Dordogne, he returned to finish third on stage 10 – a route from Périgueux to Bergerac. Groenewegen won the final stage of the race on the last stage on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

2018

In February, Groenewegen competed in the Dubai Tour and won stage 1. Groenewegen held the general classification lead until the third stage when he was penalised 20 seconds after illegally drafting behind his team's car after suffering a mechanical fault. The blue jersey, given to the race leader, was lost to Elia Viviani who started the day two seconds behind Groenewegen, who dropped out of the top 10. He expressed his anger, saying "I had problems with my bike, the mechanicals fucked it up for me. I actually think it was a good decision by the judges but it fucked it up for me" before placing the blame on his mechanics, saying that "it's the fault of my mechanics".
In the Tour de France, Groenewegen won stage 7 after beating Fernando Gaviria and Peter Sagan, both of whom had won two stages to that point in the tour. The stage was the longest in the tour at which started in Fougères and finished in Chartres, Northern France. Groenewegen also won stage 8, beating Sagan and John Degenkolb in Amiens. In an interview, Groenewegen said that the sprint was "a bit messy" but he said that he "surged ahead" and took advantage of the "good opportunity".

2019

In March, Groenewegen won the first two stages of Paris–Nice. On the second stage, he found himself at the head of the race in a group of 23 riders about from the finish line, and ended up winning the stage after another split left just 7 riders contesting for the win. Later in March, he won the Three Days of Bruges–De Panne, out sprinting Gaviria and Viviani after squeezing through a gap between Gaviria and the barrier in order to open up his sprint.
Team Jumbo-Visma won the team time trial on stage 2 of the Tour de France, thus increasing the lead of Groenewegen's teammate, Mike Teunissen in the general classification. Groenwegen went on to win stage 7 of the Tour de France, the longest stage in the tour at finishing in Chalon-sur-Saône. He beat Caleb Ewan and Sagan, giving him his fourth Tour de France stage win. Groenewegen won stages 1, 3 and 5 of the Tour of Britain, beating Davide Cimolai, Mathieu van der Poel, and Matthew Walls on the respective stages.

2020

Groenewegen's 2020 season started well, with victories on stages 1 and 3 as well as the points classification of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. Groenewegen had further success in the UAE Tour, winning stage 4 on 26 February. He beat Fernando Gaviria and Pascal Ackermann to the finish in Dubai after 173 km.
During stage 1 of the Tour de Pologne in Katowice, Poland on 5 August, Groenewegen pushed Fabio Jakobsen into the barriers surrounding the finish line causing a very serious crash that put his rival in hospital and eventually in a medically induced coma. Groenewegen crashed as well and suffered a broken collarbone. More riders were involved in the crash; French sprinter Marc Sarreau had to abandon the race due to his injuries resulting from the crash. Groenewegen was disqualified from the race and fined CHF 500. Jakobsen's directeur sportif Patrick Lefevere said at the time that his team were considering bringing criminal charges against Groenewegen.
In November 2020, Groenewegen was handed a nine-month ban for causing the crash, backdated to the day of the incident, meaning the ban ended on 7 May 2021. The previous month, Jakobsen had to undergo facial surgery where his jaw was reconstructed and bone was transplanted. Both Groenewegen and his team Jumbo-Visma apologized and took responsibility, with Groenewegen saying he "deviated from line" and also that he wanted to be a "fair sprinter".

Team BikeExchange–Jayco (2022–2025)

In December 2021, Groenewegen signed a three-year contract with Australian UCI WorldTeam from 2022 season. Early in the season he won stages in several smaller races including the Tour de Hongrie, the Tour of Slovenia as well as the 2022 Saudi Tour where he won two stages and the points classification. In the 2022 Tour de France he won stage 3, his first victory at the Tour since 2019. Groenewegen won stage 6 of the 2024 Tour de France in a photo finish after a mass sprint.
During stage 5 of the 2025 UAE Tour, Groenewegen crashed hard, and later had to abandon the race, due to sustaining a concussion.

Unibet Tietema Rockets (2026–)

In August 2025, Groenewegen was announced as a new addition to the UCI ProTeam on a two-year deal starting in 2026.

Personal life

As of 2017, Groenewegen lives in Rivierenbuurt, a district in Amsterdam.

Major results

;2011
;2012
;2013
;2014
;2015
;2016
;2017
;2018
;2019
;2020
;2021
;2022
;2023
;2024
;2025
;2026

Major championships results timeline

Did not compete
DNFDid not finish
DSQDisqualified
NHNot held
IPIn progress