The last stage of the Tour de Romandie was an individual time trial of 17.3 kilometres in Lausanne. Jurgen Van den Broeck set a really strong performance, he was fourth at nineteen seconds of winner Tony Martin. Maxime Monfort set a good time as well. He finished on the seventeenth place at 51 seconds.
In the overall classification both Lotto Soudal riders stand in the top twenty. Van den Broeck as fourteenth at 2’39” of Ilnur Zakarin, Monfort as nineteenth at 3’25”.
“I noticed soon that I was good and I immediately got the right rhythm, so I was hoping for a good result. This type of time trial suits me better than a flat course; it was a bit technical and hilly. I am really satisfied with this fourth place, I did better than some time trial specialists and that pleases me,” Jurgen Van den Broeck said.
“The Tour de Romandie was my last preparation for the Giro and was important to get race rhythm after my altitude training camp in Tenerife. I needed the intensive stages. After the team time trial we knew a top ten place in GC would be difficult. Yesterday I couldn’t follow the best on the last climb, but today was really positive.”
Frederik Willems, sports director Lotto Soudal:
“This was a really positive way to end the Tour de Romandie, with the Giro in mind. The team time trial was bad, but the riders that are selected for the Giro got stronger each day. Sander Armée had some back problems after his crash in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and as a precaution we let him go home earlier.
“Yesterday Jurgen could follow long on the last climb, but on the steep parts he lost contact. Today he got a mental boost. Maxime already had a good feeling uphill yesterday, although he had expected to hang on a bit longer. He also rode a good time trial. This lets us hope for the best for the Giro, where the toughest stages will be taking place three weeks from now.”
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