Damage control for Visma | Lease a Bike and Yates: “There’s still a lot of racing left”

Visma | Lease a Bike showed their intent early by sending four riders into the day’s break. Dylan van Baarle, Bart Lemmen, Steven Kruijswijk and Wilco Kelderman all featured at the front, with Kelderman only getting caught on the final climb. “I didn’t feel great myself, but I tried to be there for Simon. That was the goal behind the breakaway move,” he explained.

“We actually made it further than expected. The GC guys came flying past in the end. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do much more at that point, but the plan was there,” Kelderman said through the team’s channels. “We had prepared the stage really well, and I think Simon rode another strong one, even if he did lose a few seconds in the finale.”

Sports director Marc Reef was pleased with the team’s performance on the road to Bormio. “The goal was to defend Simon’s position in the general classification. If the opportunity arose, we definitely wanted to try and take some time back on the competition. We had things well under control as a team, with four riders in the early break.”

“Carapaz attacked on the Mortirolo. Simon let him go for a moment, but quickly managed to respond,” Reef continued. “In the valley, Bart and Steven were there to support Simon, which helped close the gap to Carapaz.”

“Simon just couldn’t follow that sharp acceleration from Carapaz and Del Toro on the final climb. But he still managed to ride away from the chasing group. It wasn’t a finale that particularly suited him, so we’re happy to have kept the time loss to a minimum. As a team, we executed well. There’s still a lot to fight for in the GC on Friday and Saturday. We hope to show our best again,” Reef concluded.

Yates now sits 51 seconds behind Del Toro, who leads Carapaz by 41 seconds in the overall standings.