Primoz Roglic has successfully defended his leading position in the overall classification in the Tour de Romandie. The 28-year-old team captain of Team LottoNL-Jumbo finished second in today’s mountain time trial at 4 seconds from the winner. Steven Kruijswijk also rode an excellent time trial and finished fourth. Kruijswijk now occupies the same position in the overall standings. 

Sports director Sierk-Jan de Haan was very pleased with today’s results. “I am extremely proud of this. The whole team, the riders and the staff did a good job today. It’s a pity of those four seconds, because we went for the win. But we are especially glad that we still have the leader’s jersey in our possession. With a second and fourth place, Primoz and Steven have shown that they are among the best in this field. These results are pretty good and certainly not a coincidence. We know they can do this, but you still have to do it at this level and on such a tough climb.”

With two riders in the top five, De Haan sees opportunities for the remaining two stages. “We are still going for the overall win with Primoz, but the fact that Steven is doing so well, provides us with more options. If they stay together until deep into the final, they can play their game. We can hopefully benefit from that.”

Kruijswijk is happy that he has been able to confirm his good shape with a good result. “I am happy with my performance today. This time trial was very difficult and it is always difficult to use your energy wisely in such a mountain time trial. You can’t start too fast and you have to make sure you have energy left for the last part. I might have started a bit too fast, but all in all it went very well.”