Wilco Kelderman attacked on the last day of the Criterium du Dauphiné after a hard day on Saturday but was unable to stop Chris Froome (Team Sky), who won the stage and the general classification.

“It was our plan to attack with Wilco,” Sports Director Erik Dekker said. “We succeeded already in the beginning of the stage. Wilco initiated the breakaway. It’s important that you don’t lament after a hard day like yesterday. Wilco kept his head up in a spectacular stage today, and that’s a good sign. He is still suffering, but he went for it all the same. He likes to do that, even though we knew that didn’t have a big chance to stay clear because Team Sky wanted to win the stage to grab some bonus seconds.”

After Kelderman was forced to take it easy on Saturday because of the pain in his back, he wanted to go for it Sunday.

“But the pain in my back didn’t disappear suddenly,” he added. “I really wanted to be in the breakaway today and so I attacked.

“It went good today, but not superb. Now, I’ll stay here in France for some extra days. I’ll take some days to recover and afterwards, I’m going to train here in the mountains for a couple of days.”

The Criterium du Dauhpiné turned out into a disappointment for Team LottoNL-Jumbo, eventually.

“We came to the Dauphiné with one of our team leaders to make the next step to the Tour the France”, Dekker concluded. “A crash delivered us some physical problems. That’s annoying. But the team time trial was promising. Martijn Keizer rode a wonderful stage and the riders who are going to ride the Tour de France showed that they’re good on the other hand.”