Visma | Lease a Bike celebrate Lemmen in Poland, but Vuelta co-leader Tulett loses time in Burgos

Visma | Lease a Bike celebrated a superb victory with Bart Lemmen in the Tour de Pologne. The 30-year-old Dutchman won a demanding stage featuring plenty of climbing in the finale, despite having been caught up in a massive crash earlier in the day. In the Vuelta a Burgos, however, Visma | Lease a Bike had less success with Ben Tulett.

Lemmen claimed his first professional victory in Poland after having come close on several occasions in recent years. Often, there had simply been one or two riders better than him, but not this time. In Karpacz, he just managed to hold off the rapidly closing Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana). “It was an amazing feeling when I crossed the finish line,” Lemmen said in a press release from his team.

“I had been waiting a long time for my first victory, and today it finally happened. It is special to win at WorldTour level and immediately take the leader’s jersey as well. I still can’t believe it. After the crash, I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to continue. When I got back on the bike, I was hurting everywhere. At that point the adrenaline took over and I decided to keep going.”

“After the restart, the peloton rode a little more cautiously, and I used that opportunity to attack. I took the risk of making the move myself and it worked out well. After so many attempts to finally win a race, I’ve done it,” said Lemmen, who is now also the overall race leader. Scaroni is his closest challenger at 26 seconds, with three stages still to come.

Thursday’s stage of the Vuelta a Burgos also finished uphill, but there was no Visma yellow among the first riders across the line. Tulett lost around three-quarters of a minute to stage winner Felix Gall and consequently dropped to seventh place in the general classification. Sports director Maarten Wynants had Matthew Brennan provide a strong lead-out ahead of the climb, but Tulett did not quite live up to expectations once the road went uphill.

“Fortunately, Ben felt stronger today than yesterday. He rode a good climb in the first larger group behind the main favourites and managed to finish eleventh,” Wynants nevertheless said positively of the British rider, who is in principle expected to be one of Visma | Lease a Bike’s leaders at the Vuelta a España alongside Brennan and Wout van Aert.