Bauke Mollema (Belkin) picked up seven seconds on Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in the time trial eleventh stage of the Tour de France.

The Dutch rider of the Belkin Pro Cycling Team notched the eleventh best time at the finish at Mont-Saint-Michel whilst the Spanish occupant of the place in front of Mollema managed only thirteenth. Laurens ten Dam rode a very good time trial and ended up in 22nd.  He slid two places in the GC and will start tomorrow in sixth.
 

“I did better than the Dutch time trial champion. I think that says everything about my performance,” ten Dam said. “It’s really starting to look good now. I’m sixth in the GC and we only have to climb from now on. It will be hard to make up for the time I lost to Contador, but in the Pyrenees I’ve showed I can drop him. I just need to be focused until we reach Paris.”

Team leader Bauke Mollema was satisfied with the outcome of the day and took particular pride in the fact that he was able to distance Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) on the day.

“I am extremely satisfied with how it went today,” Mollema proclaimed. “On a flat parcours like this I really did not expect to finish as high as I did. It’s very cool to have ridden faster than Contador for example. There really weren’t any TT specialists in the top ten of the GC, but my form is at a very nice level and I think that showed again today.”