Wilco Kelderman finished 13th in Paris-Nice Sunday. Team LottoNL-Jumbo’s leader wasn’t able to fight back into the top 10 in the final stage to Nice. Kelderman placed 31^st behind winner Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal). Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) won the general classification.

“It was a hard last day,” Wilco Kelderman said. The riders crossed six mountains on Sunday, two of first category. Kelderman wasn’t able to follow the best riders on those uphills. “I didn’t have a good day today and I notice that I’m not at the level I wanted to be. It must be better, clearly, but I might need more races to reach that.”

Step forward

Kelderman noticed that the difference with the top riders isn’t too big. “Everyone is close to each other, but that doesn’t mean anything to me. When you’re not able to follow the best riders, no result is good enough. I feel that I’m good enough to be amongst the top riders, but I failed to be this week. I took a step in the right direction this week. I’m going to train again now to bring my shape to a higher level.”

Sports Director Frans Maassen was expecting more from Kelderman, as well. “It looked like he was on a higher level than the results show,” Maassen added. “He placed 13th in a world-class field, on the other hand. That’s not bad, but you always want more. He needed a superb day today to repair the damage from yesterday, but it was not his day.”