At the end of the Giro d'Italia, Wilco Kelderman seemed to be tiring a bit but a week of good recovery has left him with outstanding condition for the Criterium du Dauphiné. After finishing fifth in the prologue, he was only surpassed by Chris Froome and Alberto Contador in the first mountain stage of the race and now sits in third overall.

Wilco Kelderman finished third after a serious and hot Critérium du Dauphiné stage two today. The 23-year old Belkin Pro Cycling Team rider fought for the victory on the Col du Béal with winner Chris Froome (Sky) and number two Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) until the very last metres.

Kelderman, seventh overall in the Giro d'Italia, attacked several times on the final climb, but the top riders wouldn’t allow him to stay clear. When they accelerated, the Dutchman returned their favours. Until the last three hundred meters, a group of six remained together. The final sprint of Froome and Contador proved to be too much for the others, although Kelderman was able to stay close and take third place.

“This was quite a surprise for me, to see that I’m still this good. It felt very good on the bike. It’s super nice to battle with these top riders. Although, I wasn’t able to really enjoy myself during the race as the heat was on,” said Kelderman.

“Froome and Contador were the first to attack, but started looking at each other when they were clear. We were able to re-join them. At that moment, the pace dropped and I decided to attack because I hoped that they would continue to look at each other. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay away. The differences in the overall are still too small for that,” Kelderman continues.

Kelderman is now third overall. The gap to race leader Froome is 21 seconds. With his third place, the Dutchman took the lead in the young riders’ classification and will start the third stage in the white jersey.

“I hope to bring that jersey home,” said Kelderman. “It would be really nice to hold on to that third place, as well. I’m now only behind two world class riders."

“It’s going to be difficult, though. The final weekend is tough and in between, we face some more hard tests. Besides that, riders like Vincenzo Nibali, who are preparing for the Tour, will improve along the course of the week.”

Sports Director Merijn Zeeman is happy to see that the race programme he set up for Kelderman in the winter is proving to be valid.

“After the Giro, we decided on the Dauphine instead of the Tour de Suisse with Wilco. Suisse starts a week later and it would have been difficult for Wilco to extend his good run of form for that long. This was physically possible."

“Mentally, it might have been inconvenient, but Wilco did what he could to recover in the past week. That he would be so strong is something we couldn’t have expected. Today was a highlight for everyone within the team.”