Tour de France: Jumbo-Visma show their strength on the Tourmalet
(Cyclingnews.com)

Steven Kruijswijk and his Jumbo-Visma teammates showed theirs is the team to watch with another Pyreneean stage and a week in the Alps to come at the 2019 Tour de France. Finishing six seconds behind stage winner Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and alongside the surprise yellow jersey in Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Kruijswijk strengthened his general classification position, closing the gap to last year´s winner Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) from 46 seconds after the stage 13 time trial to just 12 seconds on Saturday. Aside from Alaphilippe finishing second on the stage and extending his lead in yellow, perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was seeing 2018 race champion Thomas losing 36 seconds to stage winner Pinot, cracking with just under two kilometres to go after strong turns from Jumbo-Visma riders Laurens De Plus and George Bennett.ADVERTISEMENT `I was hoping for this, of course, especially after yesterday where my TT was pretty good and then you have to wait and see what you can give in the first mountain stage,` Kruijswijk said after the stage as he warmed down outside his team bus. `The guys were really strong, they were always by my side and I really said to them to stay calm in the race and save energy. At one point I couldn´t hold them anymore, they were so good and they wanted to ride. At one point I had to tell them to slow down a bit because I wanted to save myself for the last kilometre and have something left but they were racing pretty hard and I think they put everybody under pressure. `I´m still in a good position but Alaphilippe is in a better one. I think he´s already surprised everyone by keeping the yellow jersey for so long and every day he gives a great impression on the bike. We´ll have to wait and see if the moment is there and if it is, we´ll have to take it. So far, I´m happy with it.` The Jumbo train De Plus shows promise Alaphilippe continues to surprise You can rea ...