Wilco Kelderman stood his ground in the challenging sixth stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné. When a leading group of overall riders was formed already in the beginning of the stage, he was part of it. The effort helped him to 13th behind stage winner Rui Costa (Lampre – Merida).

“Cycling is meant to be like this,” Kelderman said after the tough mountain stage to Villard-de-Lans. “In the beginning of the stage, on a steep climb, I was well-placed in the front of the group. Guys like Nibali (Astana) and Valverde (Movistar) kept attacking. That made it a very challenging stage the whole day. They eventually escaped on the descent, when I was at the back of the group. That was a pity, but I had to save energy. The final went quite well afterwards. I wasn’t one of the best, but it went better than yesterday.”

“It was a very hard profile,” Sports Director Erik Dekker added. And the pouring rain made it even harder. “Froome (Sky), one of the race favourites, is vulnerable in the descents and that’s why there were many attacks. Nineteen riders escaped and Froome wasn’t one of them. Wilco was there, which was good of him. It all came together in the end, but the pace was very high. Even the men in the back of the race had to give everything they had. It was a great race day.”

The queen stage of the Dauphiné is on Saturday, but Erik Dekker doesn’t expect that things will turn out the same way.

“Not from the beginning, like today,” he said. “Tomorrow will be the toughest stage, so they will wait until the last climb of the day. It would be nice if Wilco can perform like he did in the last days. He is on the right way.”