Romain Bardet battles to brilliant 4th place on Giro queen stage after great team support

The queen stage at the Giro d’Italia saw a battling Team dsm-firmenich PostNL performance where after some great support from the team, Romain Bardet attacked on the final ascent to take fourth place on the stage and move up on GC.
A brutal day of 222 kilometres lay ahead of the peloton as they left Manerba del Garda this morning, which included 5500 metres of climbing and an altitude summit finish at Livigno. It was an intriguing start to things with a break made up of mostly rouleurs escaped early on, but a strong pace in the peloton remained and going onto the climbs it exploded, with almost a mini-peloton going clear in a counter move. The team marked it out with Chris Hamilton and Gijs Leemreize, before settling in to see what happened. Hamilton sat up on the next climb to drop back and help the guys in the peloton, while Leemreize stayed before himself dropping back later. 
Heading over the famous Mortirolo the team still had Hamilton, Leemreize and Kevin Vermaerke alongside Bardet in a reduced peloton, as the bunch then charged along the valley road before the final climbs of the day. The team did well to support Bardet for as long as they could, offering him bottles and taking wind, before the pace ramped up; just like the altitude. Roughly 15 kilometres from the finish Pogacar would put in his stage winning attack, while Bardet followed in the remnants of the GC group, before he too countered. Pushing all the way to the line on the stinging gradients, Bardet took a great fourth place on the day and with it some time on those around him on GC, moving the team up to seventh on GC ahead of the second rest day.
Speaking after the finish a tired but smiling Bardet expressed: “I’m really happy with that ride today. I said yesterday that a new Giro started for us today. The guys rode really well to support me throughout the day, I always had someone with me and they were there until the final main climb. I’m happy to be up there and feeling good, so we will keep fighting and trying in the final week.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “It was a good day today. The boys rode really well in the peloton and looked after Romain all day. We had Gijs and Chris up front in the big break but they came back once we had marked that move and knew what was going on. The guys then positioned really well going into the final and looked after him. Once we got to 2000 metres it’s where Romain really is strong so he hit out there. He managed to finish fourth on the stage and take a bit of time back on some of the guys around him, so we go into the rest day really happy with that performance.”