Gijs Leemreize 8th into Fano after frantic day of racing at Giro d’Italia

Before Thursday’s stage 12 at the Giro d’Italia, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL announced that unfortunately Fabio Jakobsen would not start the day due to discomfort from his crash the previous day. The rest of the squad were motivated to show themselves at the front of the race and the team came up with plans to make sure they were involved in the action.

It was a fierce start as expected with attack after attack at the head of the race before eventually a large break of around 40 riders went clear which included both Kevin Vermaerke and Gijs Leemreize for the team. Things then became tactical in the group with a few riders close on GC so the attacks behind the leading duo of Maestri and Alaphillippe started; with both Leemreize and Vermaerke represented in several counter attacks that there were brought back. Eventually a group of nine broke the elastic, that included Leemreize, and they set off in pursuit of the leading duo, while behind Vermaerke’s group was slowly reeled in by the peloton.

Leemreize’s group was never able to catch Alaphilippe though and on the final steep climb of the day things exploded in his group, as some riders looked to push on. Riding at his own pace, Leemreize was able to catch up with some of his competitors on the climb and over the top. Coming into the final kilometre he launched an attack to try and get sixth place but was just caught before the line, eventually finishing in a good eighth place with the team.

After the stage Leemreize explained: “It was a nice day I think. It was really hard in the start but it was good to get Kevin and I into the main break. The first half of the Giro wasn’t so good for me personally, I didn’t feel great and was a bit sick so I’m really happy that the shape is improving and be there in the front. We were a bit surprised with how early Alaphilippe and Maestri went for it. We knew though that Kevin and I had to make sure one of us was in any counter group because it can often then stall behind, and I was the one who made it into the counter group that went, and that’s then what happened behind. The guys out front kept up a really high speed because the nine of us were riding quite fast and it definitely wasn’t easy in the chase but they were just going full for it, so fair play to them. We’ll keep looking for more results together as a team in the next days.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “It was a shame to lose Fabio this morning, but we were determined to go out racing. We set a few plans to make sure that we were really in the race. It was great that Gijs and Kevin could make it into the break and they worked well together, following the moves. A group of nine with Gijs in it then went clear. He raced really well from that moment on and battled hard to get the best possible result. I think he did a solid job and got a nice top ten, while behind the rest of the guys came home safely in the peloton. We’ll now look towards the sprint finish tomorrow where we’ll set up Tobias.”