Visma coach Boven celebrates a 'good day' at the tour de Suisse, with crucial TTT looming

Visma | Lease a Bike helped to animate stage three of the Tour de Suisse on Friday, with Katharina Sadnik making it into the breakaway. The move stayed clear for a long time, but in the end the stage came down to a sprint. Sarah Van Dam took 11th there, and the Canadian sits third overall.

There was satisfaction afterwards at the Dutch team. "In my view, it was a good day," team manager Jan Boven said, well pleased, on the team website. First and foremost, that was down to Sadnik. "Katharina hasn't been entirely fit these past few days, so at first it was a case of hoping she'd survive the climb [right after the start]. She managed that, then got back into position and jumped across with a group that set off after the early leader. She did that really well."

The breakaway couldn't hold on to the finish, and that was — in Boven's view too — down to the presence of Kim Le Court-Pienaar. "Kim was 1:12 down on GC, so that wasn't ideal for the break," Boven said. "On the other hand, it wasn't a bad situation, because the other GC teams had to work pretty hard to close the gap. Our women, by contrast, didn't have to do much."

Van Dam therefore sits third overall, while Femke de Vries is still well placed in ninth. Saturday brings an important day in Switzerland, at any rate, with the time trial on the programme. "I think Sarah and Femke can certainly be competitive and ride a good time trial that gives them a strong starting position for the final day."

Boven is also keen to see how Viktória Chladoňová fares. "She didn't come out of the Giro fully fit, but she's getting better by the day," the team manager said.