Yesterday, the Lotto Soudal rider lost the opening time trial against Spartacus with less than one second. Today, Cancellara gained an extra second advantage on Roelandts at the intermediate sprint a few kilometres before the finish. In the final sprint, won by world champion Peter Sagan, Roelandts got fifth. There was a time gap of three seconds as of the seventh place and that made that Jürgen takes the lead with one second advantage on Cancellara!
Jürgen Roelandts: “I am happy that I can wear the leader’s jersey of the Tour de Suisse. I already tried to conquer it at the intermediate sprint. It was close, but Cancellara was a tad faster than me and gained an extra second advantage. Luckily, there was a gap in the sprint, so I do take over his jersey in his home country, that’s quite special.”
“It was a tough finale today. At first we didn’t take any initiative, Trek controlled the gap. In the last lap it started to rain and we moved up to the front. There were several crashes, but luckily none of us had any bad luck. At the end the peloton split, but I wasn’t aware of it. I wanted to be in front for the sprint, but didn’t think about winning because I was too tired. Because of a split in the peloton my fifth place still made me take over the jersey. I want to thank my teammates for the support they gave me today, like Jelle Vanendert who pulled for a long time at the head of the bunch or Tiesj Benoot who took me to the front. We won’t let someone else take over the jersey easily, but as of Wednesday it gets really tough.”
“This is the second time in my career that I wear a leader’s jersey in a stage race, last time it was at the Tour de Pologne 2009 after I had won the third stage. I would want to swop the jersey for a stage win, but of course I am enjoying it.”
The Critérium du Dauphiné ended today with a mountain stage to Superdévoluy, won by Stephen Cummings. Chris Froome is the overall winner. Bart De Clercq could hang on in the group of GC riders and was thirteenth today, he’s eighteenth on GC.
On Monday Jens Debusschere was close to victory, but it was Nacer Bouhanni who won. On Thursday Jens got fourth. After a brilliant attack of Tony on Tuesday also he became second. It was only Jesús Herrada who passed him by.
Herman Frison, sports director Lotto Soudal: “We came close to the victory this week, both Jens Debusschere and Tony Gallopin almost won a stage. You always need some luck. We didn’t come here for an overall result, like I had said beforehand. The Dauphiné was really hard with many top riders at the start here, preparing for the Tour. Also for our riders this was a good race to get ready for what’s coming.”
“Unfortunately Kris Boeckmans had to abandon the race due to an allergic reaction after he got stung by a wasp. Tomasz Marczynski didn’t start today because of a perineal injury and problems with his back. During the stage also Debusschere, Dockx and Vervaeke quit, but that was only because there was no point in forcing anything.”
Today the one hundredth Rund um Köln was scheduled. The race got decided with a bunch sprint. Dylan Groenewegen was the fastest, ahead of André Greipel and Nikias Arndt.
