"Maybe I could have raced in Norway like Wout van Aert" - Wilco Kelderman didn't want to rush his return to peloton after injury in March

Wilco Kelderman showed once again on Saturday in Villars-sur-Ollon that he will be ready for Tour de France. In case his team Visma | Lease a Bike selects the Dutchman for the Grande Boucle. Kelderman was fourth fastest on the climb, which was just enough to see him return to the overall top 10 ahead of final stage of Tour de Suisse.

Kelderman was out of competition for a while after a nasty crash in the final stage of Paris-Nice at the beginning of March. "It was a nasty broken collarbone, right at the end of the bone," he told In de Leiderstrui during Tour de Suisse. The injury ruled Kelderman out of Giro d'Italia, where he was due to share leadership with younger teammate Cian Uijtdebroeks.

But according to the 33-year-old, his gradual return to full workload went smoothly. "I was able to train again after a few weeks, but I couldn't really train properly immediately. So we took time before return to competition," Kelderman said.

Thus he was already fit to return to the peloton by the end of May. However the Dutchman didn't want to rush things. "It was a long period. Maybe I could have raced in Norway like Wout van Aert, but I chose to do an altitude camp with the group and then start here. Things went well at altitude, I was able to do everything with that."

Things also went well in Switzerland. Kelderman finished eleventh in the prologue and, with some good results in the punchy stages, maneuvered himself into a good position in the mountains, where he again holds his own. "It's going well. The form is there, but of course I haven't been in competition for a long time. That took some getting used to, especially because this is a tough race with many mountain stages in a row."