Mar🌠tijn Maaskant hopes to turn his good performance in the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse into a place on the Garmin-Transitions Tour de France squad. The Dutch rider finished second to BMC Racing Team's Marcus Burghardt, and was both disappointed and satisfied.

“Maybe I should have attacked earlier,” he told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. “If we had arrived in a sprint, I would probably have been the fa🗹stest.”

The knowledge that Maaskant was the best in a sprint was probably part of Burg♉hardt's motivation to attack just before the flamme rouge. Maaskant gave chase but finished two seconds be﷽hind the big German.

However, Maaskant, 26, was satisfied with respect to a probable Tour de France parꦰticipation. “I think now that they really want to take me,” he said. “They told me I needed to show good form in the Tour de Suisse. I showed that with my second place.”

🔯💎Maaskant rode the Tour last year as a last-minute replacement, finishing fourth in stage 14.