Tour de Suisse: Kragh Andersen wins stage 6

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Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) took victory from the breakaway on stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse as Richie Porte (BMC Racing) extended his overall lead with an attack on the late climb to the line in Gommiswald. Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin), unable to match Andersen’s surge on the third-category climb, which topped out just shy of a kilometre from the line, crossed the line nine seconds down.

Several seconds behind the Australian came the remaining remnants of the breakaway - which had once been as large as 18 - led by Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) for third place. In amongst that group of five was the yellow jersey of Porte, who had stormed up the climb, at such a rate that Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and the rest of his rivals had to relent and watch him disappear up the road.

The Tasmanian finished 12 seconds ahead of the main GC group to extend his lead to 32 seconds over the Sunweb duo of Wilco Kelderman and Sam Oomen.

With two hors categorie climbs on the menu, both packed into the first half of the 169km route before a valley approach to the short final climb, it was always going to be a hard stage to predict, and one where a breakaway would have more than a fighting chance.

Kregh Andersen got himself into a break of 18 ahead of the Furkapass at 2,429 metres, and was still there when the group thinned on the subsequent ascent of the Klausenpass. Once down the other side, he found himself in the valley with Haas, Izagirre, Maxime Monfort (Lotto Soudal), Michael Gogl (Trek-Segafredo), and Cyril Gautier (AG2R La Mondiale), and a lead of more than four minutes.

A lot would depend on whether the Peter Sagan’s Bora-Hansgrohe team would chase down the break, but neither the world champion nor any other stage win hopefuls committed, and it was down to BMC to manage the gap to protect the jersey, Monfort having started the day 2:31 down.

Heading onto the short final climb with a lead of just over two minutes, the breakaway riders knew it was in the bag, even if Porte’s dramatic surge decimated the gap. Gogl was the first to attack with just over two kilometres to go but Kragh Andersen, who had been instructed not to work in the break from about 20km out, caught him a few hundred metres from the top of the climb and held on in the flatter run to the line to collect the first WorldTour win of his career.

“It’s still a bit unreal,” he said. “I didn’t expect this when I woke up this morning. I’m thankful the team gave me this opportunity to go into the break. How the team helped me in the break, it was super nice that it worked out. It was a relief for me.

“I was surprised that nobody followed Gogl when he attacked. I had to play a hard game and waited. I was with Monfort, and then after that, time was running out and to dig deep to see if I could catch up with Michael. It worked out. The whole day was super hard. It wasn’t really a day for me with three and a half thousand altitude metres. I’m quite a heavy guy, but I trained hard for it in the last few weeks so it is nice that it paid off.”

How it unfolded

There was always going to be plenty of interest in the breakaway and as it was nearly 20 riders who got away in the opening kilometres.

In there were Kregh Andersen, Haas, Izagirre, Gogl, Gautier, Monfort, Sep Vanmarke (EF-Drapac), Rein Taaramae (Direct Energie) Perrig Quemeneur (Direct Energie), Mark Christian (Aqua Blue), Magus Cort Nielsen (Astana), Jan Polanc (UAE), Nicholas Dougall (Dimension Data), Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Maarten Wynants (LottoNL-Jumbo), and Michael Golas (Team Sky). Late to the party were the Quick-Step Floors duo of Iljo Keisse and Tim Declercq to make it 18.

The group opened up a lead of four minutes by the time they’d scaled the Furkapass after 40 kilometres, where Haas took maximum points in the KOM standings. The pace was hard enough to drop Keisse, Declercq, Polanc, Gautier, Dougall, Golas, Vanmarcke, and Wynants, but not enough to distance them to such an extent as to prevent them from regaining contact on the long descent.

There wasn’t much flat before the road headed uphill again for another major mountain pass, the Klausenpass, with the break starting the climb with a lead of 3:30. This time Keisse, Declercq, Polanc, Dougall, Wynants, and Konrad were all dropped for good early on.

Taaramae then decided to go on the attack, and opened up nearly a minute as he led the race over the top and collected maximum KOM points, only to sit up and wait for his remaining companions on the descent.

By that point, the front group contained just seven riders, as Vanmarcke, Golas and Cort were distanced late on the climb. Despite a prolonged chase down the descent and through the valley, they wouldn’t see the front of the race again. Christian suffered a mechanical and had to drop back to that group, while Taaramae was cooked and dropped back to the peloton.

With a gap of 3:45 and 30-odd kilometres to cover before the finale, the race hung in the balance, but it soon became clear no one would be coming through to help BMC on the front of the peloton.

Kragh Andersen, Haas, Izagirre, Gautier, Gogl, and Monfort still had three minutes with under 20km remaining and started to believe. It was at this point that Kragh Andersen, who had teammates sitting second and third overall, was told to sit on the back of the group. The energy he saved perhaps proved the difference in the finale.

Gogl was the first to attack on the short punchy climb but the others bided their time. When Kragh Andersen went he passed a rapidly fading Gogl with 1.4km to go, and held on despite a chase from Haas.

Down the road, however, the drama was unfolding. Having sat in behind his teammates all day, Porte emerged on the front of the peloton and danced out of the saddle. What looked at first like an attempt to shake the legs and keep himself in a good position, soon turned into a decisive attack as he slowly but surely wound up the tempo. Quintana was safely on the wheel as the bunch thinned out dramatically but soon even he couldn’t hold the pace and Porte ghosted clear to tighten his grip on the yellow jersey and issue a statement of intent for the rest of the race.

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