Gesink holds seventh place in Gap
Robert Gesink maintained his place in the yellow jersey group and maintained his seventh place overall when the Tour de France finished in Gap today. After the tricky descent of the Col de Manse, he placed 31st in stage 16. The stage was won by Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida).
After the peloton gave the breakaway enough space to go for the stage victory, the overall riders turned up the pace on the Col de Manse. “We had headwind on that climb,” Robert Gesink said after the race. “But the pace was high, especially at the beginning of the climb. They slowed down a little bit afterwards so I came through it. When Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) attacked, I tried to follow him for a while, but I had others with me immediately. It also seemed a little meaningless to me to keep trying because there was a descent still to come.
“Now it’s rest day. Everyone’s legs are hurting, so it’s nice to recover a little bit at the moment.”
Setback
Gesink’s result accomplished one of Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s targets on Monday, but they wanted Steven Kruijswijk to be part of the breakaway.
“It’s setback that Steven wasn’t able to escape,” Sports Director Nico Verhoeven said. “That was also one of our priorities today. You are left to focus on your other plans afterwards and bring Robert as well as possible to foot of the last climb. That went well and we are satisfied with his effort.”
Confident
The front man of Team LottoNL-Jumbo has to maintain his level on the high Alpine passes starting on Wednesday. “We have to be there with Robert,” Verhoeven continued. “That should be possible. Robert has a high level at the moment and we are very confident in him.”
