20-year-old Pavel Bittner takes breakthrough 4th place on stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse: "It feels great to be in the mix"

For Team DSM's 20-year-old Czech sprinter, Pavel Bittner, the 2023 Tour de Suisse is seen as a great place to measure his current level against some of the fastest men on two wheels. If stage 2 is anything to go by, Bittner has a bright future.

"Other teams controlled the whole stage, only on the last climb the racing opened up a bit but then it was sure it was going to be a sprint," Bittner recapped to the official website of Team DSM after the conclusion to the stage in which he finished 4th behind Biniam Girmay, Arnaud Demare and Wout van Aert. "I surfed a bit and found the perfect line in the sprint. I did not have the speed to win today but it feels great to be in the mix. I’m very grateful for the opportunity; the best way to start off the week.”

“We saw some solid teamwork today and that already started early when the big crash happened. At this point, we were all in front and only Chris got caught up but could quickly make it back to the bunch," analyses Team DSM's coach Pim Ligthart. "We then saw some great teamwork in supporting Pavel for the finish, who then did a nice sprint. He just missed out on a podium, but I think it’s a really good start to the week after the good TT yesterday. There are some positive vibes here in the team to keep going like this.”