Team Visma | Lease a Bike concludes Tour de Suisse with ninth place for Reijnhout
Team Visma | Lease a Bike again showed its attacking intentions in the final stage of the Tour de Suisse. Rosita Reijnhout was part of the breakaway and battled for the day's victory. In the end, she had to settle for ninth place.
For the second day in a row, Team Visma | Lease a Bike delegated someone in the leading group. Whereas yesterday it was Femke de Vries who went on the offensive, today it was Reijnhout's turn. The 20-year-old rider jumped away from the peloton at a clever moment and, with seven riders, joined two leaders.
On the second and final climb, Reijnhout had to let her fellow escapees go, before being caught by the group of favourites just before the summit. Reijnhout was able to keep up and could hope for a good result later when the two groups merged. In the final kilometers, Demi Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma, Elisa Longo Borghini and Neve Bradbury rode away from the rest and Vollering took the day's and overall victory.
In the chasing group, Reijnhout sprinted to ninth place. "I am definitely happy with this. It was racing all day and I tried to respond to everything. That it finally paid off with a ninth place is very nice," said Reijnhout, who noticed early in the stage that she had good legs.
"I really enjoyed riding a stage like today. I did my best and learned a lot."
"We started with a climb after nine kilometres and at the top there were 25 riders left. I felt good and kept trying to jump with the riders who attacked. In the end, I rode away with a group and we ended up in the leading group. On the second climb I noticed I was pretty exhausted, but luckily I was able to join a chasing group including Vollering a little later."
"It became a fight between the front two groups and when the gap was closed, I was suddenly in the final of a WorldTour race. At the end I tried to sprint, but because I had done a lot all day, I had little left. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed riding a stage like today. I did my best and learned a lot," Reijnhout said.
Team Visma | Lease a Bike concluded the four-day race with three top-ten results and 13th place in the final classification. According to team manager Jan Boven, this is a nice result. "After the tough first day, I think we managed to pick ourselves up well. With Femke (de Vries) and Rosita we competed for the day's victory for two days. A top-ten ranking in the final classification would have been the icing on the cake for Femke, but she gave everything. All in all, we rode well as a team and did what we had to do," Boven said.