George Bennett of Team LottoNL-Jumbo rode an attacking race during the 19th stage of the Tour de France. Just after the start of the stage to Saint-Gervais-Mont Blanc, there a group made it clear with the New Zealander. The peloton didn’t let them go far and Romain Bardet (AG2R) won the 146-kilometre stage with a late attack.

"It sucks that we could not stay away, I had really good legs and everything went according to plan,” Bennett said.

“I ended up in a large leading group and we got away. Then you hear that Astana is leading the pack, and you know it will be difficult. If there is a team leading the chase you just make sure you go faster, eventually Astana would give it up."

Not everyone thought that way.

"The cooperation in the leading group was not good, I wanted to go faster but there were many complaints and few riders were not working. I really do not understand the riders attacking, because if we had worked together, we surely would’ve had a chance. "

"It's good to see Bennett go again in the escape,” added Sports Director Merijn Zeeman. “He wanted it very much and it's nice that he made it. He joined up with the best, but it was disappointing that the peloton did not let them go."

Crash

"When I was back in the group, I wanted to stay there as long as possible, but then I crashed and I was dropped,” Bennett said.

He fell over some other cyclists, but suffered no damage. He added, "Tomorrow we will try it again."

Groenewegen

"Another tough is day behind us,” the team’s sprinter, Dylan Groenewegen explained. “It went pretty well today and we reached the goal. My legs hurt very much, but everyone feels their legs at this point in the race so you have to get over it.

"I'm not extremely tired, but it’s more like the others climb a lot faster. The other sprinters are struggling, too. At the start of the Tour, I was dropped a lot earlier and now I’m able to stay with the other sprinters.

"It’ll be another hard stage tomorrow, but then I can think about Paris. That's the big goal now."