After Wednesday’s stage for the breakaway where Oscar Onley took fifth place, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL were active once again on stage 18 of the Tour de France on Thursday. Following the numerous attacks that peppered the front of the peloton from the beginning of the day, the team rotated through the moves well and always ensured they were present in any group that looked as if it might go clear. Eventually the elastic snapped and a large group of 36 went clear that Onley and Frank van den Broek rode well to infiltrate. However, an ill-timed puncture for Onley saw him distanced from the group and despite giving it his all, he was never able to re-join the front of the race.
Van den Broek soldiered on in the break and as they hit the climbs in the second part of the day the attacks started once more in the break, this time with the group knowing they would have the chance to fight for the stage win. Van den Broek did well to follow several moves but had to ride within himself and at his own pace as the pace really ramped up towards the summit of the penultimate categorised climb. Showing good fighting spirit, he was able to return to the leading group ahead of the last climb which crested at around 30 kilometres to go. From there, it was attack after attack and eventually a three-rider group went clear that would go on to battle for the stage win. Van den Broek tried a few times to launch as part of counter-moves but nothing stuck, and he would ultimately come across the line in 21st place in the group that was fighting for the lower positions in the top ten.
Speaking after the stage Van den Broek said: “It was a big fight once again to get in the break, and it was good to have both Oscar and me in there at the start. Unfortunately, he had a puncture on the descent and then he couldn’t come back to the group. That made it tougher to be there by myself in a strong breakaway like this. There were a few teams who had several guys in the break so it was kind of a bit of a guessing game for which attacks to follow. We still had quite a bit to go at that moment when the moves started, then when the attack with Campenaerts went I wasn’t in the best position. I think I had the legs in me to maybe have followed. In the end we were fighting for the top ten positions but it was really nice to be back in the mix again, and it was fun to race like this. I enjoyed it. Now I think the next days will be really hard in the mountains.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston continued: “It was again a really hard fight for the breakaway. It was looking promising for us when we had the two guys in there with Oscar and Frank. Unfortunately, Oscar punctured before the team cars got behind the break so he got a wheel from Shimano. He tried everything to get back to the group but ultimately he wasn’t making it back on so he sat up and waited for the peloton. Frank continued but when he is only one guy in a break of 36 then it is always difficult to cover all of the moves. He did a really good job I think. He lost contact on the climb but showed some really good spirit to come back to the group. He was racing hard all the way to the finish, following some good moves there. We got 21st place in the end but I think he really left it all out there on the road.”
