Visma | Lease a Bike nowhere to be seen in stage 6 of Tour of Switzerland, Benoot crashes in final phase

Visma | Lease a Bike had actually started the Tour de Suisse strongly. In the first stage, Bart Lemmen placed himself in an excellent position in the general classification by finishing third from a large breakaway. However, the Dutchman lost significant time to the favorites in the first mountain stages, making a high GC finish unattainable.

Beyond that, the team has failed to make a real impact on the race, despite its ambition to fight for stage wins via breakaways. In Stage 6, Visma | Lease a Bike attempted to get into the break with Bart Lemmen and Thomas Gloag, but they were too late to bridge across to the strong group of four that got away. In the end, the breakaway was caught in the final kilometers, and Jordi Meeus of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe won the bunch sprint.

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“We did everything we could to get someone in the early break,” said team director Maarten Wynants in a recap on the team website. “A few riders, including Küng and Schmid (Stefan and Mauro, ed.), formed the first serious breakaway. Bart and Thomas put in a strong effort to bridge the gap, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. There just wasn’t much more in it today,” Wynants added, referring to the absence of a sprinter in the squad.

As a result, the riders had no choice but to save their energy for the final weekend. Not all of them made it to the finish unscathed, as Benoot crashed in the final phase. “Unfortunately, Tiesj was involved in a crash near the end,” said Wynants, who offered some reassuring news. “Fortunately, he only suffered some abrasions. In tomorrow’s challenging stage, we hope to show ourselves again, ideally by getting into the breakaway,” the former rider concluded optimistically.