Bert-Jan Lindeman has become eleventh in the tenth stage of the Vuelta a España. The 28-year-old rider from Team LottoNL-Jumbo partnered with Juan José Lobato in the early breakaway. During the stage, he took some points for the KOM-jersey. Lindeman finished ahead of the favourites, but couldn’t keep up with the best. The Italian Matteo Trentin took the stage win.

It took some time before there was a breakaway. Eventually, eighteen riders were in front. “It was a tough day”, Lindeman said afterwards. “The first hundred kilometres were killing. Everyone wanted to be in the breakaway. I managed to be in front, but that wasn’t easy at all. Lobato also was in the breakaway, but the stage was maybe too hard for a sprinter like him.”

Lindeman could keep up with the leading group until the last climb. “After I had taken some points for the KOM-jersey on the first climb, the organization in the breakaway group was bad. I tried to escape, but I was caught soon. After that, I wasn’t good enough on the final climb. I wasted a lot of power to be in the breakaway, so I couldn’t compete for the victory. Taking this into account, much more than an eleventh place wasn’t possible.”

Sports director Grischa Niermann was glad two of his riders made it to the breakaway. “Despite that, it’s a pity we couldn’t compete for the victory”, he said. “Lindeman and Lobato were in a strong leading group. We noticed that they weren’t good enough to compete for the prizes. So Lobato helped Steven Kruijswijk in the final. Helped by Stef Clement he closed the gap with the other favourites. Although we didn’t compete for the victory, it was good that Kruijswijk didn’t lose time.”