The battle for the overall victory at the 2024 Tour de Suisse would come down to the final climb of the eight-day race, with UAE Team Emirates teammates Adam Yates and João Almeida battling on the stage 8 time trial, run on a largely uphill 15.7km course to Villars-sur-Ollon.
In the end, Yates would win out, the Briton defying even his own expectations to hold off his teammate’s challenge. He had predicted after stage 7 that Almeida would take “almost a minute” on him and wrest the yellow jersey from his shoulders at the last.
At the first checkpoint, coming after 5km of flat roads, Yates had only shed seven seconds to Almeida, a deficit he turned into a lead on the way up, crossing the second checkpoint three seconds ahead.
Almeida would end his day in the hot seat, having set a time of 33:24, 20 seconds quicker than anyone else. That would be good enough for the stage win, the team’s fourth in as many days, giving both men two apiece.
But it wouldn’t be enough to overhaul stage 5 and 7 victor Yates, who crossed the line just over two minutes later, ceding a mere eight seconds at the finish and, with it, securing the second WorldTour stage race of his career.
Behind the lead pairing, who have dominated much of the race, 2023 champion Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) rounded out the stage podium at 21 seconds down, in the process leapfrogging Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) to take the final spot on the GC podium at 3:02 down on Yates.
“About two days to go, I wasn’t sure if I could do it,” Yates said after the stage. “Obviously, I had the two time checks with João in front of me and I knew he was going to accelerate a little bit there in the end.
“Actually, I just couldn’t accelerate, I was already over the limit so I just tried to hold the pace and thankfully it was enough,” said Yates as tried to catch his breath.
“I’m still out of breath because it was such a hard climb, but one thing I had in the back of my mind for a while was the 2019 Tirreno-Adriatioc, where I lost the TT on the last day by one second, and this had lived rent-free in my head for many years so it’s finally good to win a race and win it with a TT like this.”
How it unfolded
As was the case earlier in the day on stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse Women, the concluding stage of the men’s race would see riders tackle a mountain time trial as they faced a 15.7km run from Aigle uphill to stage 7 finish town Villars-sur-Ollon.
10.2km of the climb would be run at an 8% average, with the day set to decide the final general classification and, with it, the battle for the win between UAE Team Emirates riders Adam Yates and João Almeida.
There would be two-and-a-half hours of riders between the start of the stage and that final showdown, however, with those lying at the bottom of the general classification setting off first and setting the early pace.
Cees Bol (Astana Qazaqstan) and Luca Jenni (Switzerland) were the quickest of the very early starters, the pair posting times of 38:32 and 38:27 before Oscar Riesebeek (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took over the hot seat, blowing the pair away with a far superior time of 37:09.
Astana would be back in the provisional stage lead before long, with the 33rd rider to start, Simone Velasco, becoming the first man to break the 37-minute barrier with a time of 36:22.
13 riders later, Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla) went 21 seconds quicker, while the 60th man out on course, Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) broke into the 35s with a time of 35:57.
He’d only last around a quarter of an hour in the hot seat, though, as the game of musical chairs continued with Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) coming through to shatter that mark, flying across the line in a time of 35:16 and an average speed of 26.7kph.
Caruso’s ride marked near-enough the halfway point of the time trial, meaning around 70 more men stood a chance of toppling his effort. The likes of Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), and Damien Howson (Q36.5) all came home with provisional top-10 placings, but no riders seemed able to get close to Caruso until Arkéa-B&B Hotels pair Raúl García Pierna and Kévin Vauquelin crossed the line 50 seconds apart.
The Spaniard went provisional second with a time of 35:40 before Vauquelin shaved 10 seconds off that to go second himself, though still 14 seconds short of the leader.
When those riders on the fringes of the top 40 set out to start their runs, among them was Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ), the talented young climber lying far lower in the standings than would’ve been expected of him at the end of this mountainous race.
Despite several below-par showings during the week, Martinez clearly had something left to give on the final uphill blast. He’d put 33 seconds into Caruso’s leading time partway up the climb, an advantage he’d only grow on the run towards the line – eventually ending his race a mammoth 57 seconds up on the Italian veteran with a time of 34:19.
As Almeida and Yates warmed up side-by-side close to the start house ahead of their final showdown, a series of other riders put in strong efforts, with Jesús Herrada (Cofidis), Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny) and Frank van den Broek (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) all hitting the top five while the GC cream of the crop set out back in Aigle.
In the meantime, David de la Cruz (Q36.5) was another to put on an impressive showing, recording the quickest time at the second checkpoint but fading on the final run to finish 30 seconds down on Martinez.
Meanwhile, the battle for yellow had begun, with Almeida needing 32 seconds on his teammate Yates to snatch the overall win. He’d make up seven seconds of that over the opening flat 5km, meaning the 2024 Tour de Suisse would be decided on the race’s final climb.
2023 champion Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) set the quickest time of anyone to the second checkpoint at 25:26, while a short time later, Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) dislodged Martinez at the top of the timesheets, going five seconds quicker than the Frenchman.
The ever-impressive Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) – with a time of 34:01 – and Skjelmose – at 33:44 – would go quicker still.
At that point, however, all eyes were on the two UAE riders still out on course and on the live timing. Almeida duly crossed the line the quickest of anyone, scoring the stage win to round out the race, though missing out on the biggest prize soon after as Yates came home well within the time needed to hang on for the race win.
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