Mike Teunissen attacked, joined the front split and finished fourth in the Amgen Tour of California’s seventh stage on Saturday. Behind stage winner Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) and Teunissen, Timo Roosen took ninth.

The penultimate stage in the Tour of California started with a big fight for a place in the breakaway. “At first, 14 riders escaped with Mike Teunissen among them,” Sports Director Frans Maassen said. “It seemed to be the break of the day, but Trek - Segafredo kept on riding hard in the peloton. The bunch fell apart and the first part came back to the breakaway. George Bennett, Peter Sagan [Tinkoff] and three other riders broke away afterwards, but they didn’t get enough space.”

Isolated
“It was a really hard day,” Bennett added. “We raced full-gas from the first kilometre to the finish. I felt superb. The attacks started early and some overall riders tried it, as well. At one part of the stage, there were only five of us left. From there, we caught the early break and I felt it was the moment to go as the other competitors for the general classification were isolated. It didn’t work out.”

A big group of riders, with general classification riders, sprinted for the stage victory, eventually. “I finally succeeded in my aim to be part of the breakaway,” Teunissen said. “I wasn’t able to enjoy it very long because it was a tough race. With the help of Timo Roosen, I grabbed a nice fourth place, eventually.”

Special day
“It’s great that Mike was able to finish fourth today after all the work he did for me this week,” Bennett added. “It was a special day for our team with Steven Kruijswijk taking the pink jersey in the Giro d’Italia. I wanted to make it even better, but I couldn’t do more than this, unfortunately.”