The Tour de Romandie is Tom Van Asbroeck’s first stage race at the World Tour level. In the future, the Belgian Team LottoNL-Jumbo rider would like to get involved in stages like today’s, which was won by race leader Michael Albasini of Orica-Green Edge, but for now the climbing pace in the peloton is too high for him.

“Tom is a tough guy and doesn’t complain a lot, but today was really hard for him,” said Sports Director Erik Dekker to the LottoNL-Jumbo website. “The peloton went really fast on the two second-category climbs, about a hundred men were dropped. Tom found a good group to make it to the finish. That was difficult enough for him.”

Asbroeck admitted that he was struggling.

“The level is much higher than I’m used to and I especially feel that when going uphill. I try to follow as long as possible, but sometimes the pace is so high that after ten minutes I just cannot keep up.”

The lessons in Switzerland are particularly valuable for Van Asbroeck, who’s slowly returning to full fitness after a few heavy crashes during the spring.

“I have been able to keep up with the pace in the gruppetto twice. It’s important for me to improve and become stronger. Someday, I hope to be able to mix in, although I know I have to gain some more power,” the 25-year-old from Aalst said. He joined the team last winter from Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise.

Laurens ten Dam and Robert Gesink both finished in the first peloton. Dekker was satisfied with Gesink being able to follow the best men in the race for the second day in a row.

“That was nice to see.  Laurens was forced to stop on the first second category climb because something was stuck his wheel. It happened at a bad moment, but he managed to return to the first group on the uphill.”

Tom Van Asbroeck will need a good day on Friday to stay with the first group, said Dekker.

“Tomorrow isn’t the most difficult day of the week, Tom’s real test will be on Saturday, but it will be another tough day for him. It’s all about the second climb of second category, which is situated around 25 kilometres before the finish line. If the peloton keeps a high pace there, it’s going to get really difficult for Tom, also because it’s followed by another third category climb. It would be nice to see Tom in the first group in the final kilometres, but gaining climbing metres is his primary goal."