Tour de Suisse Men stage 5 LIVE: Gap between break and peloton is stable as heat sees list of abandons grow
Without question, the Queen stage will take the peloton on a 152km day of racing with over 4,000m of elevation gain, where the overall winner will be crowned in Villars-sur-Ollon
Tour de Suisse - Everything you need to know
Analysing the contenders for the men's Tour de Suisse
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Race Situation
Leaders:
Afonso Eulálio (TBV)
Lenny Martinez (TBV)
Andrew August (NCI)
Bauke Mollema (LTK)
Nairo Quintana (MOV)
Finn Fisher-Black (RBH)
Louis Vervaeke (SOQ)
Mauro Schmid (JAY)
Paul Double (JAY)
Mattia Gaffuri (TPP)
Bart Lemmen (TVL)
Peloton +1'35"
Vervaeke now has 44 points and leads by 26 points over Mollema. He will win the KOM jersey if he finishes in the time limit.
KOM (Col de la Croix 2)
1. Vervaeke (SOQ) 20pts
2. Mollema (LTK) 14pts
3. Double (JAY) 8pts
4. August (NCI) 6pts
5. Schmid (JAY) 4pts
The gap drops to 1'35".
Currently 12 riders either didn't start or have abandoned the race today.
The break head over the top of the Col de la Croix for the second time and they hold roughly the same advantage as they did on the descent of the previous lap.
The riders are nearing the top with 1'50" splitting the break and bunch.
5km from the top of the climb.
Into the final 100km and the small gap appears to suggest that Pogačar wants to go out with a bang and take another stage win as well as the overall title.
The heat is baking down on the riders and a lot of them are really suffering out there.
The riders roll through the start/finish line in Villars-sur-Ollon for the first time since roll-out earlier this afternoon.
More abandons
Markel Beloki (EFE)
Marijn van den Berg (EFE)
The difficulty of the stage coupled with the heat is proving too much for a lot of riders.
Mathieu van der Poel (APT) put on a terrific showing in the ITT yesterday, missing out on the win by 0.7 of a second. But, the UCI has deemed that former world road race champion showed too much to viewers after appearing topless on the 'hot seat' and fined him 500 CHF despite the temperatures being in the high 30s...
>>> Mathieu van der Poel fined for 'inappropriate attire' while on hot seat in Tour de Suisse stage 4
These two riders have a lot to race for today. Carapaz holds onto 2nd place by just 5" over Matthias Vacek (LTK). However, the Czech rider is not a climber. It will be interesting to see how the best young rider copes with the terrain today. His teammate, Andrea Bagioli (LTK) is just 19" behind him with Brandon McNulty (UAD) the next closest at 49".
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110km to go
The gap is just below 2 minutes for the leaders. They need way more gap if they're going to have a chance of being involved at the end of the stage.
And onto the climb they go! This full ascent is 19.6km long with an average of 7% and a max of 17.9%.
The race has almost reached the bottom of the descent. They have a very brief period on the valley bottom and then they're back to climbing the Col de la Croix again. This time it is the first of two full ascents with our first passage of the finish line.
August is the best placed rider in the break. He sits in 14th place at 7'36" down on Pogačar.
Lead group:
Afonso Eulálio (TBV)
Lenny Martinez (TBV)
Andrew August (NCI)
Bauke Mollema (LTK)
Nairo Quintana (MOV)
Finn Fisher-Black (RBH)
Louis Vervaeke (SOQ)
Mauro Schmid (JAY)
Paul Double (JAY)
Mattia Gaffuri (TPP)
Bart Lemmen (TVL)
Peloton +1'40"
It looks like Bart Lemmen (TVL) is also in this lead group...
130km to go
The gap expands to 1'25" between the break and the peloton with Schmid, Double, Vervaeke, Mollema and Martinez the only confirmed riders in the group of 11 riders.
The group comes back together as 11 riders again with 55" on the peloton. They are on a plateau around halfway down the descent at the moment.
There are two other riders with Schmid now as they look to push on clear of the rest.
Mauro Schmid (JAY) is out front and has just pushed clear of the rest of the break on the descent.
KOM (Col de la Croix)
1. Vervaeke (SOQ) 6pts
2. Mollema (LTK) 4pts
3. Martinez (TBV) 3pts
4. Schmid (JAY) 2pts
5. Double (JAY) 1pt
How early is too early for Pogačar to go on the attack?
The gap does seem to be coming down again. UAE Team Emirates-XRG don't seem to want to let this go.
The green KOM jersey of Louis Vervaeke (SOQ) has made it into the group that slimmed down to 11 riders as they went over the top with just 15" on the peloton.
Multiple moves now coming out of the peloton with this quickly becoming difficult to control. There is now a lead group of around 15 riders as they are about to peak the climb.
The seven leaders have just 10" on the peloton.
Seven riders are clear as the top of the first ascent of the Col de la Croix.
Multiple attacks in the peloton
There are around 6 riders trying to break off the front of the peloton.
Make sure to read the report of the last stage of the women's Tour de Suisse, it was quite the finale to a superb race...
UAE Team Emirates-XRG have taken up the pacing with no moves going away just yet as they take on the steepest part of the climb.
Non-starters
Matthew Brennan (TVL)
Julian Alaphilippe (TUD)
Alec Segaert (TBV)
Lucas Hamilton (NCI)
Sjoerd Bax (PQT)
The neutralised start is in just a couple of minutes.
The riders have yet another very sunny day to race in with temperatures expected at a max of 29°c in Villars-sur-Ollon, it will be hotter in the valley bottom.
Here is what the riders have on the menu today. Over 4000 metres of climbing on just one climb that is taken on three times, twice in full with the third being split. The riders start in Villars-sur-Ollon and ride the second half of the Col de la Croix and then at the finish they ride the first half, finishing in Villars-sur-Ollon.
It is fair to say that, with his lead of 4'22" over Richard Carapaz (EFE) in 2nd place, Pogačar looks like he has won this year's race, ticking off yet another WorldTour race off the list. That said, anything can still happen!
It was a dramatic ending to the time trial yesterday with Tadej Pogačar (UAD) taking the stage by less than a second from Mathieu van der Poel (APT).
Hello and welcome to the final stage of the 2026 men's Tour de Suisse. We have already had the women's race come to a dramatic end on the course around Villars-sur-Ollon. Now it is the turn of the men.
