Bauke Mollema has not had the Tour de France that he was hoping for but today he proved that he refuses to go down without a fight. Having been part of the long breakaway, the Dutchman gambled it all and was rewarded by moving from 10th to 7th in the overall standings.

Bauke Mollema dropped from seventh to tenth in the overall yesterday, but after just one day, he’s already back in his former spot at the Tour de France. The leader of the Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM attacked during stage 17 and placed eighth at the top of the Pla d’Adet, 1-12 minutes behind mountain king and stage winner Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo).

“Today’s course lent itself for an attack,” said Mollema. “It was a short and explosive stage. I gave everything I had, I just had to try something.

“I kept a close eye on which teams tried to escape. With the battle for the mountain jersey in mind, you just know that Rodriguez and Majka are going to give it a try. If they bring some team-mates and form a larger group then you know that the tempo will remain high.

“It’s nice that I was able to show myself and that I moved up in the overall. It’s great that I’m back in seventh now. I knew it was going to be hard to win the stage. This whole Tour, I lacked that acceleration to go into the red zone and keep going, although I’m able to keep pedalling. Besides that, the breakaway was very strong.”
 

Laurens ten Dam retained his eighth place in the overall by crossing the line in 14th position.

“The last climb was a kind of time trial for me, from top to bottom”, he said. “Luckily, I was able to benefit from the Movistar men. I tried to drop Valverde, but when I saw one of his team-mates waiting for him, I thought it would be better to take advantage from their efforts and just sit in their wheel. After a while, I started to struggle and just before the top Valverde even dropped me. That shows his class. I was just as good as yesterday and I’m quite happy with this result.”
 

Bram Tankink rode a strong race and despite some bad luck, he placed 43rd.

“Katusha wanted to get Rodriguez in the fight for the polka dot jersey and when they missed out on the break right from the start, they went full throttle. I was able to stay with the yellow jersey group for a long time, however. My legs felt good and especially in the first climb, I surprised myself. That was nice. Unfortunately, I punctured on the climb.”
 

Sports Director Merijn Zeeman saw how Steven Kruijswijk did well again. Thanks to a 28th place on the Pla d’Adet, the Dutchman moved up to overall 16th.

“We are very satisfied. Bauke immediately showed his combativeness by making his way into the break on the first climb. He was very motivated and wanted to show something. Like Laurens, who was able to climb with the favourites, he rode a strong race.”

“We’re very proud to have two men in the top ten and that’s what we told the riders before the start. Of course, Bauke isn’t on his normal level and he’s not happy about that, but we told him that if he continues to fight, there’s still a lot of possibilities. Bauke is a strong fighter. He proved that again today, along with Lau.”
 

The peloton faces another heavy mountain stage tomorrow. First the riders need to tackle the Tourmalet before the finish climb up Hautacam.

“The men face two very difficult climbs,” said Zeeman. “It’s clear that our focus is on the overall with Bau and Lau. Tomorrow is going to be a battle. The fatigue can strike all of a sudden as we’re now in the third week. Anyone can have a bad day and we could well see some surprising things.”
 

Despite the fact that the Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM is currently far away from the Netherlands, the team was touched by the national day of mourning at home for the victims of flight MH17.

“To remember them, we rode with black arm bands. In the Netherlands, people experience this day in a different way, but we also felt for them. I just heard that the overpasses in Netherlands were overcrowded by people who wanted to show their respect to the procession of hearses. We’ll undoubtedly see the images later and then we’ll have another moment to remember the victims.”