"It's quite ugly" - Thijs Zonneveld criticises UAE Team Emirates' reaction to Wilco Kelderman crash on stage 4 of Tour de Suisse

Stage 4 of the 2024 Tour de Suisse took place on Wednesday afternoon, giving the general classification hopefuls a first summit finish test. In the end, it was UAE Team Emirates' Adam Yates who proved strongest of the GC men, finishing second on the stage and moving into the Maillot Jaune.

A little earlier on the final climb however, Team Visma | Lease a Bike's Wilco Kelderman was the victim of a rare uphill crash as the Dutch had a coming together with UAE Team Emirates prodigy Isaac del Toro. Although both the Dutchman and the Mexican weren't seriously injured, their position in the leaders group was lost, a much bigger blow to Kelderman than it was to del Toro.

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In truth, not much was made of the incident at the time on commentary, however, via his official X (Twitter) account, ex-pro and Dutch cycling expert Thijs Zonneveld was far from happy with what he perceived as an unsportsmanlike reaction to the accidental crash by the UAE Team Emirates leaders. "It's quite ugly that UAE and Del Toro immediately accelerate before Kelderman returns," Zonneveld fumes on his social media.

Eventually, Kelderman came home 1:13 down on Adam Yates, a blow to the Team Visma | Lease a Bike rider's general classification hopes. "It was very unfortunate to see Wilco drop out of the group of favorites in this way," reflected Kelderman's teammate, Cian Uijtdebroeks in a post-stage interview with the official website of Team Visma | Lease a Bike afterwards. "He fought hard and made up a lot of time. We're both not in a bad position, so we can definitely do something in the coming days. The time differences are not too big.”

You can see the crash between Kelderman and Del Toro for yourself in the video down below!

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Isaac del Toro (UAD) & Wilco Kelderman (TVL) crashed uphill in Stage 4 of Tour de Suisse 😳😳😳

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