Moving up to sixth position

The Dutch rider Mollema clinched the win, Roman crossed the finish line 11 seconds later in a seven-man group. “It wasn’t bad, I just secretly hoped that I could be better in the finale but Mollema was a bit better and he took a well-deserved victory. Our team did a great job today. Our teammates perfectly delivered me and Nicholas Roche under the last climb. Nico is still recovering from his Giro crash but he is getting better and I think  we will see him back in action anytime soon,” Roman said.Due to snow the stage was shortened after the first climb. “..but we had a quite complicated transfer. We set out at 10am and the start was scheduled for 3pm. We traveled by train and by car. Fortunately, it stopped raining in the valley at the start and we only got wet at the end. I tried to stay up front in the final climb. The finish was a bit different from the usual route at Crans Montana. The last two kilometers were really hard, with 9% of gradient but I coped well and I am happy with the outcome. Some good riders dropped out of the contention for the general classification and I guess that the breakaway cost Hesjedal a lot of energy. We will see what happens in the following stages,” Roman added.