Tour de Suisse: Warbasse wins on first summit finish in Villars-sur-Ollon

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Larry Warbasse claimed stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse on Tuesday as the last survivor of the early breakaway, earning Aqua Blue Sport its first ever WorldTour victory.

Forty seconds later, BMC's Damiano Caruso, who several kilometres prior had been among the first GC hopefuls to try an attack on the final climb, led a select group of overall contenders across the summit finish line. That propelled him into the race leader's yellow jersey. LottoNL-Jumbo's Steven Kruijswijk finished just behind Caruso for third on the day, slotting into second overall.

Warbasse put in plenty of work over the final 50 kilometres to dispatch his breakaway companions, setting a hard tempo on the day's first climb to drop Astana's Lars Boom and then pushing the pace on the steep finishing climb to Villars-sur-Ollon to drop Nick van der Lijke (Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij) and Antoine Duchesne (Direct Energie). Continuing on solo, he held off the GC group to nab his first ever pro victory.

"It's my first victory in my career - it's amazing," an overjoyed Warbasse said. "I love this race, I love Switzerland. I was on IAM Cycling the last two years, and it's one of the most beautiful countries and I have so many great memories here. Today I felt like it was my home race. I've never had so many people cheering for me, everyone was yelling my name. I'm really happy.

"As soon as I got in the breakaway (I knew I could win) - I told everyone yesterday, I worked really hard the whole last season - I always give 110%, I'm just so happy it finally paid off."

The battle for the yellow jersey proved to be the undoing of several pre-race favourites, with defending champion Miguel Ángel López (Astana) and three-time former winner Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) losing time, and Bahrain-Merida's Ion Izagirre and Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin among the many names coming home several minutes down.

Caruso, Kruijswijk and fourth-place finisher Simon Spilak (Katusha-Alpecin) all crossed the line on the same time. A very active AG2R duo of Domenico Pozzovivo and Mathias Frank couldn't manage to get clear of their GC rivals on the final slopes, but did reach the finish just a few seconds behind Caruso.

How it unfolded

The pack got off to a fast start from Bern before the early break jumped away around 15 kilometres into the day, with Warbasse, Duchesne, Van der Lijk and Boom forming the quartet off the front. After a few riders attempting to bridge were pulled back, the break was allowed some breathing room on the long, flat first half of the stage.

The pack let the gap grow all the way out to nine minutes over the course of the next 30 kilometres before the pace from Sunweb and AG2R La Mondiale at the front tightened the leash. As the breakaway pressed on toward the foot of the first of the day's two major climbs, their advantage hovered between seven and eight minutes.

The gap dipped down under seven minutes on the run-in to the first-category Col des Mosses, and it dropped to within six on the early slopes.

Boom was the first to lose touch in the break, unable to hold Warbasse's pace on the climb. Van der Lijke dropped back for a few minutes, but he rejoined the trio before the top of the climb and took the maximum points at the summit, with the gap standing at around five minutes.

The gap remained steady through the descent toward the Villars-sur-Ollon climb, and then Trek-Segafredo and FDJ pitched in at the head of the peloton as the road evened out to bring the breakaway's advantage down to four minutes as they began to work their way up the early slopes.

Warbasse hit the front again as the gradients increased and Duchesne soon lost touch. A kilometre later, it was Van der Lijke's turn to drop, leaving Warbasse solo with a little over eight kilometres remaining.

A hard tempo from BMC saw the peloton behind rapidly shedding riders, with Matthews and then Dumoulin going backwards alongside dozens of others.

A surge from Caruso with around six kilometres left to race signalled the beginning of hostilities in earnest, and several pre-race favourites quickly lost touch as the pressure mounted at the front of the GC group. Izagirre, López, Costa and Trek-Segafredo's Jarlinson Pantano were among those who couldn't keep the pace as attacks began to fly, with Kruijswijk and Spilak putting in digs.

Pozzovivo hit the front with a sustained push, and although he never got more than a few seconds, neither did he relent. A select group formed behind him, with Caruso, Frank, Spilak, Kruijswijk and Movistar's Marc Soler in the mix.

With three kilometres to go, Pozzovivo was brought back into the fold. 800 metres later, his teammate Frank tried his luck with a move of his own, just as López began working his way back into the frame, trying to catch the back of the main chasing group.

Despite the action behind, Warbasse never faltered out front, continuing to push his steady pace into the last kilometres of the climb. He rounded onto the finishing straight with plenty of time to celebrate his win.

The chasing GC riders refused to let Frank get much breathing room. They caught him up with around 500 metres to go, with Soler losing the wheel as the pace picked up for the final push and a resurgent López nearly catching him on the finishing straight.

Caruso proved fastest to the line in the second-place sprint, putting him into yellow ahead of Wednesday's stage 5.

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