In the hilly stage to Arlesheim a leading group of four riders with Taco van der Hoorn for Team Jumbo-Visma got established in the early kilometres. Just like yesterday, the leading group got a maximum lead of 3.5 minutes as they were eventually caught by the sprinter teams in the final. Floris De Tier wasn’t feeling well and abandoned the race.

“Three riders had attacked and then they closed the gap in front of me. As a result, I was unable to join the breakaway from the beginning”, Van der Hoorn explained. “Suddenly, I got some space and I tried it anyway. It was a tough effort because the three riders were almost one minute ahead of me. I had to go full throttle and dig deep. We tried to keep up the speed of the peloton as much as possible and then accelerate towards the final climb. I think that happened too early, but I gave my best and went all out. We will definitely try again this week.”

“This was indeed the plan, to try and be present in the early breakaway”, Sierk-Jan de Haan said. “We want to show ourselves this week. Yesterday with Bert-Jan and today with Taco. Unfortunately, the breakaway does not get much space this week, which makes it difficult to successfully escape.”