The day after the flat opening stage in the Czech capital Prague, the first uphill finish awaited. Team Visma | Lease a Bike took control of the peloton and brought Uijtdebroeks comfortably to the final climb. William Smith, who normally rides for the Development Team, made a strong move early on and saw the peloton break into pieces.

Uijtdebroeks then took the lead and outpaced his opponents by riding uphill at a blistering pace. The Belgian, who claimed his first professional victory last week in the Tour de l'Ain, was unable to shake off Lecerf and Alessandro Fancellu. Uijtdebroeks had to settle for third.

"Today, we showed how strong we were as a team", Uijtdebroeks said afterwards. "The guys worked extremely hard all day. We had made a plan beforehand and we executed it fantastically. Thomas rode at a steady pace on the first part of the climb, after which William made a tremendous effort to launch me."

"I went for it and immediately opened up a gap. Unfortunately, the climb wasn't steep enough to drop the others. It was quite long and you have more advantage when you're in the slipstream. Unfortunately, no one wanted to collaborate with me." Despite his third place, Uijtdebroeks feels good about today's stage. "I think we put in a great performance as a team. We definitely have the power, and I'm feeling positive about the coming days."

Tomorrow it's the sprinters' turn, followed by the climbers on Sunday. "Sunday's climb is much steeper than today's. That's more to our advantage. As a team, we've shown how strong we are uphill, so on Sunday we'll try to get our revenge."