Wilco Kelderman took over the leader's jersey today in the Tour de Suisse stage six. The LottoNL-Jumbo rider finished fifth in the stage and took the yellow jersey from Frenchman Pierre Latour (AG2R). Pieter Weening (Roompot) won the stage after escaping on the last climb from the leading group.

"It’s nice that I have the jersey.” said Kelderman. “I felt good today, the team put me in the perfect spot at the beginning of the final climb and I was then able to follow. I was able to accelerate in the last hundred metres.”

During the rainy sixth stage a group of 15 escaped early.

"Today was not in itself a hectic stage,” said Sports Director Jan Boven. "AG2R had everything under control, it wasn’t exciting until the descent of the Klaussenpass. It was wet and twisty, and Izagirre benefited from it. He quickly took a lead of 4'30”.

"It was mainly another cold day,” added Kelderman. "Especially, on the Klaussenpass, it was really cold, foggy and wet. I did not even realise Izagirre was away. Only in the valley, where it was clear, was I warm again. "

On the final climb, Izagirre was caught and the group with Kelderman became increasingly small. Kelderman won the sprint from his elite group with Andrew Talansky and Warren Barguil. They are now the only two within 30 seconds of Kelderman in the standings.

Defend the Jersey
"It's nice that Kelderman now has the lead. We're going to do everything to defend the jersey,” Boven added.
"Tomorrow is a special day, we climb up to 2700 metres. And above 2000 meters, it’s always exciting. We saw that Kelderman is good and hopefully, he can hold that level in the coming days."

“The higher the better,” said Kelderman. “I am back from altitude training so I'm used to the altitude. And then, of course, I look forward to the time trial. A good classification should definitely be possible by the end of the race."