After a good performance on yesterday’s summit finish that saw Max Poole and Oscar Onley take third and fifth respectively, Team DSM were once again looking to animate things on today’s longer ascent to the line. Biding their time and saving energy for the finale, the team were happy to see a six rider breakaway go clear and let the race leader’s team control things.
Those ahead worked well together and heading into the final 2o kilometres, albeit now as a group of three, they held an advantage of three minutes and 30 seconds over the peloton. Moving forward en masse, the team came to the front of the group and upped the tempo, drastically cutting into the breakaway’s advantage, with Enzo Leijnse, Alex Edmondson and Casper van Uden all taking strong pulls. Approaching and going onto the final climb, Tobias Lund Andresen continued his strong work from the previous day and brought Poole and Onley into a perfect position as the road began to go upwards.
Onley attacked multiple times in the early part of the climb, looking to go clear while Poole followed in the wheels behind. Other teams followed a simialr tactic but the shallower gradients made it possible for others to follow in the wheels. Poole soon joined in the attacks with a dig himself at three kilometres to go and despite initially getting a bike length or two of a jump on the opposition, they were able to drag themselves back to his wheel. Eventually the stage winning move went just before the flamme rouge and the road flattened out, with Voissard not an immediate threat on GC, he was given some leeway by race leader Hirschi. Poole and Onley fought as hard as they could do the line in the sprint behind, finishing the day in sixth and eighth place. It leaves the Team DSM duo in fourth and sixth overall ahead of tomorrow’s final sprint stage.
