In wet conditions, Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development started the final stage in Croatia with places two (Van Bekkum), three (Pattinson) and four (Pietro Mattio) in possession. Due to the strong wind, tough conditions and the attacking work of Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development who were going full out for the overall win, the field was quickly broken up. Van Bekkum, Pattinson and Mattio were on constant alert and no breakaway left without a rider from the team.

Pattinson suffered three flat tires and was also involved in a crash. Nevertheless, he managed to stay in the front. In the final Van Bekkum was with the leading group that battled for the day's victory. In the end he finished fifth. For a while it looked like he would take the overall win, but a 20-second time penalty cost him the yellow jersey.

"I'm super proud of the riders," sports director Robert Wagner said after the race. "We showed here all week that we were the strongest team. That proves that our approach is working. We deliberately don't ride too many races and focus on getting stronger. This week the riders showed that they have definitely grown. We really rode as a team, even if some of our riders still lack experience. Races like this are perfect to grow in that as well."

Despite the pride in his riders, Wagner was also left with a sour feeling. "Although the experience gained is much more important for our Development Team than a result, we would have liked to have won the final classification here," he said. "Because of a feeding within the last twenty kilometers, Darren got a time penalty and ends up missing out on the overall win. I take responsibility for that. I am very bitter about that."

For his part, Van Bekkum gives a little more clarification about the battle plan. "We wanted to play all or nothing today. The intention was to go for the overall win. After many attempts, I managed to create a gap with sixty kilometers to go. In the last twenty kilometers five guys closed the gap. They tried to release me, but I had good legs," the young rider said.

"We worked great together as a team the last few days," van Bekkum continued. "In the past stages we did everything we could to grab the overall victory. We can all be proud of that. The new guys got to know our race intentions. We were always on target to make the race hard. We draw our lessons from this course and hope to take the good form with us towards the upcoming races."

Pictures: Mario Stiehl