Team LottoNL-Jumbo showed itself during the entire stage today of the Tour of Romandie. The Dutch WorldTour formation led the chase in the early hours and on the final climb, Robert Gesink, Primoz Roglic and Antwan Tolhoek tried to attack and ended up in the first group. Michael Albasini won the sprint and Fabio Felline stayed the leader.

"The result is not what we hoped, but I saw a strong team," said Sports Director Grischa Niermann. "Not only the team in general, but also Primoz and Robert gave a very strong impression. That's a good sign for the coming days."

The early escape soon built a big lead and the leader's team controlled the gap. With 60 kilometres to go, the team took its responsibility to close the gap. In a short while it drove the peloton a lot closer and knew it could go for the victory on the final climb.

Team LottoNL-Jumbo tried everything on the climb to go for the stage win.

"Robert tried and also Primoz attacked. The final climb was not steep enough to really split the peloton. Then it's a sprint with 60 men and we were too far behind. An important goal was to maintain Primoz's ranking and that succeeded."

Roglic is now fourth in the overall ranking. At nine seconds from the leader.