Cian Uijtdebroeks loses some time on stage 5 of Tour de Suisse: "I gave everything, but the rhythm changes were very difficult for me"

Cian Uijtdebroeks has been riding an excellent season so far. That doesn't necessarily change today despite the fact that 20-year old Belgian was unable to follow the pace on front of the race and lost some time ahead of decisive 25,7 km time trial this Sunday.

"It was a really hard day today. Already in the first climb the pace was very high and then after almost five hours we came to the final climb where I noticed that the legs were not in top shape. I gave everything, but the rhythm changes were very difficult for me. It looks like Remco was in a similar situation and at the end we just tried to ride together as hard as we could to the line," said the BORA-hansgrohe rider after the stage.

"First of all I want to say that I hope the riders who were involved in the serious crash are ok. As for our guys, we saw a good team performance, with Sergio and Marco in the big front group. We should also not forget that the youngest rider in this race, Cian Uijtdebroeks, is still in the top ten in one of the biggest races in the world. So sitting in 9th place overall after today, that was another strong performance from him," sports director Jens Zemke praises all his riders while hoping that Gino Mäder and Magnus Sheffield who crashed in final descent will get away easily.

Uijtdebroeks is currently 9th overall, 1:57 behind race leader Mattias Skjelmose, but has over a minute of advantage over 10th Dylan Teuns. After 6th place at Tour de Romandie and 9th at Vuelta Ciclista a Catalunya, this would continue the Belgian's top 10 streak at WorldTour stage races to threee.