Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) has stormed to a solo win ahead of teammate and race leader Adam Yates on a severely weather-shortened stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse.
In a second straight day of crushing domination by UAE Team Emirates, Almeida pulled away from Yates close to the summit finish of the 42.5-kilometre stage to claim the win.
Yates opened up the final attacks two-thirds of the way up the cat.1 ascent of Blatten, leaving behind Almeida, Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).
However, Almeida then clawed his way past the Dane and Colombian as they tried to react, bridging across to Yates and ultimately dropping him for the stage win
“We were both really strong, and it was quite good,” Almeida, who has strengthened his second place overall and close in on Yates to 27 seconds, said afterwards to race TV.
“Adam attacked quite far from the finish, and I was on Skjelmose wheel so it was perfect for me. In the end, I could catch him [Yates] without bringing the other riders across. So I’m really happy with this victory.”
Four seconds ahead of Yates at the finish and with a time bonus to his benefit as well, the TV interviewer suggested to Almeida that, with two days remaining, the overall was developing into a thrilling fight.
“I think it’s positive,” the Portuguese star answered. “As long as we do first and second, it doesn’t matter who, I think we’re both happy.”
“There’s good teamwork and there’s always respect for each other, that’s the main thing. At the end of the day, the team wins anyway so we just have to keep the focus these next two days, so hopefully we could make it.”
Personally, Almeida confirmed, he did want to take the outright victory in Suisset. “Of course, I want to win all the time. But I will also respect my teammates, so I’m happy for him as well.”
How it unfolded
The original stage was shortened from 151.5 kilometres after the Furka and Nufenen passes, the latter peaking out at 2,478 metres above sea level were removed because of heavy snowfalls that blocked the route. The 150 riders left in the race took to the improvised new start in Ulrichen, with Pascal Eenkhoorn (Lotto Dstny) and Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) DNFs.
Amongst those remaining in this year’s Tour de Suisse, the ultra-short stage somewhat predictably sparked a very fast and furious opening few kilometres. 2024 Tour of Turkey winner Frank van den Broek (dsm-Firmenich PostNL), Swiss time trial specialist Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost), Alexis Renard (Cofidis) and young Norwegian racer Anders Foldager (Jayco-AlUla) were the first to move away, carving open a gap of around a minute on a peloton that rapidly ramped up to breakneck downhill pursuit mode. Renard dropped back quickly, but the remaining three continued to drive as hard as possible and with 16 kilometres remaining, still held onto over a minute’s gap.
UAE once again posted their flatland powerhouse Marc Hirschi on the front to keep things under control. But spurred on by a time triallist of the calibre of Bisseger, a former stage winner in the Tour de Suisse and motivated by racing on home terrain, the trio continued to tear along on the smooth, untechnical downhill approach road towards the Blatten at speeds rarely below 70kmh. All but ignoring the first two of three intermediate sprints that came in quick succession on the stage, their gap at the foot of the final climb was still relatively healthy - given the short distances - 1:15.
Ineos Grenadiers kept the pace high at the foot of the climb in the pack, quickly superseded by UAE, and with 5.5 kilometres to go, Bisseger stomped away alone. Young UAE racer Isaac del Toro once again gave it a solid blast at the front of the steadily shrinking bunch for the second day running, and while Van den Broek then quickly powered past the Swiss stage leader, it was clear the peloton wanted the stage win.
3.5 kilometres from the finish, just as he had done on stage 5’s summit finish, Yates powered away once again, rising out of the pedals as he eased ahead. Shooting ahead of Van den Broek, the Briton quickly opened up a gap of some 150 metres, with last year’s winner Skjelmose, Bernal and Almeida the trio who resisted the damage the best.
Yates' gap was initially only a handful of seconds as Skjelmose kept up a solid pace behind. But it was of no avail, as Yates accelerated a little harder to try to ensure he could claim a second stage. However, Bernal then reacted strongly, shedding the duo of chasers, only to see Yates respond with his own steady acceleration and Almeida go clear, passing the Colombian and coming up to Yates in the final kilometre.
Driving hard ahead of Yates in the last part of the steadily rising climb, initially, it looked as if Almeida was going to sherpa in the GC leader. Instead, he pulled away, making the most of a cleverly calculated effort on the climb to reel in his first victory since the Portuguese TT Nationals last year, on one of the oddest day's racing of the season to boot.
With just two stages remaining the GC is still in Adam Yates’s favour, but Almeida still looks to be interested in finishing as strongly as possible, particularly with Sunday’s time trial in his favour. Meanwhile, Bernal is looking increasingly solid in third place at 1:28, nearly a minute ahead of Skjelmose.
After Friday’s mini-stage, Saturday reverts to type for Suisse with a fourth uphill finish in as many days, this time rounding out a 118.2-kilometre mountainous trek beginning and ending in Villars-sur-Ollon.
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