First Belgian to conclude in the top five here in the last 34 years.
Ilan Van Wilder added another World Tour top-five to his growing palmares, after the ones at last year’s Tour de Pologne and this year’s UAE Tour. Now in his third season with Soudal Quick-Step, the 23-year-old from Jette showed again how much he has progressed since joining the Wolfpack in what was a demanding and wearing edition of the Tour de Romandie, which concluded in Vernier after a rain-soaked, full gas day.
A solid display across the six stages of the Swiss race and some strong climbing performances on the mountain top finishes of Les Marécottes and Leysin helped Ilan bring Belgium’s best GC result in more than three decades here and another notable result for our team in a World Tour race this season, after the runner-up places we got in Paris-Nice with Remco Evenepoel and the Volta a Catalunya, where Mikel Landa also concluded second.
“Top five in a World Tour race with such a strong field, just a couple of seconds off the podium, is a nice achievement and it makes me happy. It wasn’t easy, we had plenty of hard stages and inclement weather these past couple of days, but we did a great job as a team and I did my best every time. It’s my third result of this kind in a week-long World Tour event and it shows how much I improved. At the same time, it gives me a lot of motivation to keep working, become even better and continue fighting for strong results together with the team in this type of races, which suit me”, said Ilan after his second outing at the Tour de Romandie.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
