In the difficult opening phase, Bouwman and Gijs Leemreize tried to jump along with the escapees, but they didn’t manage. On the day’s second climb, nine riders created a gap. They got a five-minute lead, but the peloton slowly increased the pace throughout the day. Tobias Foss and Tom Dumoulin had to let go of the group of favourites. Bouwman and Sam Oomen stayed with the strongest men on the first half of the climb, but eventually, the pace proved too high for them.

Bouwman was realistic. “It was tough. I initially tried to grab mountain points, but I did not have the legs to make the difference. I also had a reasonably good position in the general classification. There were too many guys in the front to grab points. Still, I am not far behind. For me, the Giro has already succeeded and everything that is yet to come is a bonus.”

“On the Blockhaus climb, I stayed with Sam for as long as possible”, Bouwman said. “I managed to do that until nine kilometres below the summit. It’s a shame that Tobias and Sam lose the classification here, but plenty of opportunities await in the upcoming two weeks. We are not finished here yet.”