{"id":87881,"date":"2026-06-19T15:04:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/87881\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:04:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T15:04:36","slug":"a-rock-solid-lemmen-finishes-third-at-tour-of-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/87881\/","title":{"rendered":"A rock solid Lemmen finishes third at Tour of Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/bart-lemmen\" title=\"Bart Lemmen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bart Lemmen<\/a> was in great form during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/cycling\/romain-gregoire-strongest-from-the-break-in-switzerland-domestique-pogacar-falls-short-by-a-few-seconds\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">second stage<\/a> of the Tour de Suisse. The Dutch rider from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/visma-lease-a-bike\" title=\"Visma | Lease a Bike\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Visma | Lease a Bike<\/a> was part of the early breakaway group and was in contention for the stage win, which he narrowly missed. It was a shame, but the rider and his team could still look back on an excellent day.<\/p>\n<p>Early in the stage, Lemmen broke away with a strong group of escapees. Joined by Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor), Romain Gr\u00e9goire (Groupama-FDJ), and Afonso Eul\u00e1lio (Bahrain Victorious), the climber managed to stay just ahead of the charging Tadej Pogacar and Mathias Vacek, but in the sprint, Lemmen was beaten by Gr\u00e9goire and finished third.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt really good today,\u201d he says on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teamvismaleaseabike.com\/race-report\/lemmen-rewards-himself-with-podium-finish-after-strong-ride-in-stage-two-of-tour-de-suisse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">his team\u2019s website<\/a>. \u201cI rode a good race, but it\u2019s a shame I wasn\u2019t able to finish it. It\u2019s great to be competing for the win in a field like this, but I felt the cramps coming on in the last 3 kilometers, so I knew it was going to be tough to win today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, this isn\u2019t the first time Lemmen has had to concede defeat to Gr\u00e9goire in Switzerland. Last year, the pair were also part of the leading group in the opening stage. In the pouring rain, the Frenchman took a big risk on the descent and rode solo to victory. The Dutchman was the strongest on the climbs, but ultimately had to settle for third place then as well.<\/p>\n<p>Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n<p>Lemmen: &#8216;It feels really, really good&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The missed opportunity will sting for a while, but it also gives Lemmen a lot of confidence. \u201cIt feels really, really good, and today\u2019s performance only confirms that. Hopefully tomorrow we\u2019ll get a chance to contend for the win with Matthew (Brennan, ed.), and Sunday will be an important day for Wilco (Kelderman, ed.). I hope to do my part in both stages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.idlprocycling.com\/cycling\/tour-de-suisse-2026-stage-3-preview-will-an-easier-day-end-in-a-sprint-for-the-men-and-women\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Friday\u2019s third stage<\/a> will take place around Bad Ragaz. With a flat finish, Brennan and Visma | Lease a Bike will be hoping for a sprint. Kelderman is the team leader for the general classification: the Dutchman rode an excellent opening stage and is currently eighth in the standings. He will need to defend that position in Saturday\u2019s time trial and the subsequent queen stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bart Lemmen was in great form during the second stage of the Tour de Suisse. The Dutch rider&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[44671,88,17,36733,44672],"class_list":["post-87881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-bart-lemmen","tag-cycling","tag-switzerland","tag-tour-of-switzerland","tag-visma-lease-a-bike"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116777390047928645","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}