Wilco Kelderman was sitting nicely in sixth ahead of today's queen stage of the Volta a Catalunya but the young Dutchman saw his top 10 hopes getting crushed by a bad crash. Despite escaping relatively unharmed, Kelderman failed to stay with the best on the final climb and dropped out of the overall top 10.

Wilco Kelderman was unlucky today in the fourth stage of the Volta a Catalunya. The leader of the Belkin Pro Cycling Team crashed hard during the queen stage and lost his sixth spot in the overall on the wet and cold summit finish to Vallter 2000-Setcases. Miraculously, the Dutchman came away unharmed from his crash, while his bike broke into three pieces. 

“Fortunately, the damage to myself wasn’t too big,” said Kelderman. “Although, the crash did affect my riding on the final climb. I just wasn’t good enough to stay with the best riders.” 

Despite his crash, Kelderman still managed to finish 16th, 51 seconds down on stage winner Tejay van Garderen (BMC). 

Stef Clement enjoyed a much better day. He escaped during the stage and kept the mountains jersey, which team-mate Jack Bobridge held a day earlier. 

“Personally, it was a special and beautiful day. To be in the break in a queen stage is satisfying, because only strong riders can do that. It was a day of first times for me. For the first time this year I was in a break, for the first time this year I rode passed some snow, for the first time this year I punctured and for the first time in my career I took the mountains jersey. It’s a pity that I had to take it from of a team-mate.” 

Clement hopes he can hang on to the jersey until the end of the race in Barcelona.

“I would like to hold on to it, of course. That would be a first time, as well. I’ve never won a classification before. It’s nice that after so many years in the peloton, I still get to experience new things.” 

Frans Maassen expects that Clement will keep his jersey on Friday.

“With 222 kilometres, tomorrow’s stage is the longest of the week,” said the Sports Director. “There is one climb at the end of the stage so I think a break has a good chance to stay away. It’s important to get a rider in the attack of the day, although with Paul Martens, we also have a man for the sprint.” 

You can read our preview of stage five here.