La Planche des Belles Filles (France), July 11th– The biggest win of his career so far for Dylan Teuns and one of the biggest for Team BAHRAIN MERIDA. The Belgian rider wins atop La Planche des Belles Filles, the first summit finish of the race. A win from the breakaway and his debut victory at Le Tour de France. What a better way, also to celebrate the first ‘Grand Boucle’ victory of the team.
Stage 6 – 160.5km running from Mulhouse to the famous ski resort in the Department of Haute-Saône and featuring seven categorized climbs – was one of the most awaited. But instead of a showdown of the GC riders, a breakaway could easily formed from the beginning and happily Dylan Teuns was part of it: “Today was a good opportunity for a break so I was looking for a good chance and finally a group of 14 riders formed. It was a nice group and we worked well together.Once we saw the gap was growing, everybody started to believe that we could make it to the finish”.
In fact, Dylan Teuns managed to stay away with the only Giulio Ciccone resisting until the final few hundred meters:“I know that Ciccone is a very strong rider, he won a stage at the last Giro and it seemed to me the same situation as last year at the Vuelta, when I lost the victory with Woods and I knew I couldn’t make the same mistake today. So I had to stay calm and just waiting for the right moment. I tried a couple of times in the last five hundred meters and finally the third time I succeeded. I saw that had a little gap and I just kept pushing to the finish line”.
Dylan Teuns – who this season won also a Critérium du Dauphiné stage, wearing the yellow jersey for two days – had never won a Grand Tour stage: “It’s unbelievable and winning here at the Tour de France is a dream come true”.
