Sports Director Meren Zeemann (Jumbo-Visma): “Wout van Aert…

“I’m second now, it looks good, but on the other hand there is still a difficult mountain stage tomorrow (today, editor). I will do my best. We will see where the ship ends,” the Dane of the Dutch WorldTour team remained on the easy.

Athletic Director Mirren Zeman (Jumbo-Visma) was delighted with his tour reveal performance. They were three giants of mountains they had to cross. Jonas shows that he is one of the top three climbers of the Tour. We are full of confidence. Of course he should now recover well and be ready for the time trial tomorrow and Saturday. I think we can certainly dream of a podium in Paris. That’s beautiful what he showed.”

Zeeman was very pleased with Wout van Aert’s performance. “Coss and Jonas helped at the foot of the Col du Portet. That was also the agreement we made earlier. Wout certainly could have gone further, but we didn’t do it on purpose. Because it wasn’t necessary in the first place and also for what He’s still coming in Wout. That’s why we’ve decided not to let him go over the limit,” said Jumbo-Visma’s chief sporting officer, who has seen his team reduce to four units.

“It is particularly unfortunate that we have now also lost Kruijswijk. Stephen was already ill on his rest day in Andorra. He wanted to continue with the team, but he couldn’t. So we are missing an important boy for the group, but with the next stages it should be possible. We have Kuss and Van Aert for the mountains and Mike Teunissen for the flat roads. We have enough quality to help Vingegaard.”

Zeeman suspects Van Aert will have a very good trial on Saturday. “But there are many favorites for the victory day in Saint-Emilion. Bissegger, Küng and Asgreen: There are a group of riders who can be considered among the favorites in this ultimate experience.” (to rub)