A day that could potentially have been one for the breakaway, there were lots of attacks in the opening part of Thursday’s stage but eventually a four-man move went clear, and after a crash which saw the yellow jersey involved – the attacks stopped. Unfortunately, Fabio Jakobsen would step off the bike during the stage and abandon the race; not feeling 100 percent.
The rest of the Team dsm-firmenich PostNL squad rallied round each other well, and looked to set up Bram Welten for the finale. With the breakaway caught it was nervous in the last ten kilometres and a crash split things in the peloton. Some good positioning from Romain Bardet saw Nils Eekhoff, John Degenkolb and Welten come through unscathed, as the French climber brought them to the front inside the last five kilometres to go. It was a fast and technical run-in, with Eekhoff helping to set the pace at the front to keep things stretched out while Degenkolb stuck with Welten. The Team dsm-firmenich PostNL duo were in a good position through the last kilometre but it was a hectic finale and when a gap opened up for Welten to launch, he kicked as hard as he could but had to sit down in the saddle in sight of the line, still managing to take a nice 14th place – his first ever top 15 in a Grand Tour.
At the finish Welten said: “We were disappointed to lose Fabio but we managed to switch our mindsets and really just went for it in the final. For me it was special to be the finisher in a race like the Tour de France and have the support of the team. The guys were really good towards the last kilometres and we rode really well with each other going into the finale. If we keep going like this then I think we can still manage to get a good result here in the sprints.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “Having lost Fabio early in the stage, I think the guys rallied around each other really well after that. We held the focus throughout the stage and brought Bram into the sprint in a really good position. The spirit is still really good in the team and we look forward to the coming days where we will try and take our opportunities once more.”
