Gesink on his way up

Robert Gesink is only in his first year as a professional cyclist, but the Rabobank rider is showing promise of great things to come. In Tuesday's Queen stage of the Deutschland Tour he finished third atop the Rettenbachferner, and moved into third place overall, as well as taking over the young rider's jersey.

Directeur Sportif Frans Maasen was pleased, and with more than just Gesink. "Honestly, we are not very surprised about this. We had expected a top-five ranking, but it is still a very special performance, though," he said on the team's website, rabobank.nl. "It was, after all, the highest situated arrival of the season. And also compliments for Laurens Ten Dam [Unibet]. The guy rode a very strong race. With regard to our team: they all made it to the finish in time. Koos's twentieth place was of course also a good result. But then again, we sort of had expected that as well."

The team called the finale "an exciting man-to-man battle", noting that "it was obvious from the efforts of the riders to maintain their position in the front ranks that it was a tough track. Gesink's body language at that time showed that he was having a top-day."