Tour de Suisse: Spilak wins summit finish at Tiefenbach Glacier

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Simon Spilak (Katusha-Alpecin) soloed to victory at the Tiefenbach Glacier above Sölden to move into a commanding position atop the overall standings at the Tour de Suisse with two stages remaining.

Spilak forged clear almost 9 kilometres from the summit after his Katusha-Alecpin teammate Rein Taaramae had produced a startling display of pace-making that dramatically whittled down the front group at the base of the climb, with yellow jersey Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) among the first of the contenders to be distanced.

Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale-Drapac) was the last man to stay with Spilak after Taaramae swung off with 10 kilometres to go, but he, too, had to yield to Spilak's relentless tempo on a mountain pass that climbed to 2,700 metres above sea level.

Spilak contended to extend his advantage on the long haul that followed, and well before he entered the lengthy tunnel that led to the summit, it was clear that he would emerge on the other side as the stage winner and as the new leader of the Tour de Suisse, with his rivals scattering at various points beneath him on the mountainside.

"Yesterday I had a bit of a crisis on the last climb and I was behind, but today I had good legs when I woke up," Spilak said with considerable understatement. "My team helped me a lot and I'm very happy."

Jon Izaguirre (Bahrain-Merida), who had been dropped 10 kilometres from the top with Damiano Caruso (BMC) and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), recovered sufficiently near the top to take second place on the stage, 22 seconds behind Spilak. Dombrowski stuck admirably to his task all the way up the climb, but the American had to settle for third place on the stage, 36 seconds down.

For the podium contenders, it was a case of grimly limiting the damage on the climb over the Tiefenbach Glacier, and though Caruso and Kruijswijk each endured their difficulties, they reached the finish together, 4th and 5th on the stage, but all of 1:04 down on Spilak. Caruso remains 2nd on general classification, albeit 52 seconds down on Spilak, while Kruijswijk is 3rd overall at 1:05.

Taaramae's form was such that he hung on to take 7th on the stage, 1:33 down on Spilak, while men who had designs on the podium – or even final overall victory – followed behind in ones and twos.

It was a particularly trying day for AG2R La Mondiale, as Pozzovivo and Mathias Frank both lost more than two minutes to Spilak. Pozzovivo is now 4th at 2:28, while Frank slips to 6th, 2:51 off the base. The margins have widened suddenly in a once tightly-packed general classification.

How it unfolded

Friday's stage was always going to be won and lost on its lone climb, the striking haul to the finish above Sölden, but an early clutch of escapees, including world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) nonetheless forged clear to animate the opening hours of racing.

Sagan was joined by Jhonatan Restrepo, Baptiste Planckaert (Katusha-Alpecin), Jeroen Meijers (Roompot-Oranje Loterij), Lars-Petter Nordhaug, Daniel Pearson (Aqua Blue Sport), David De La Cruz, Matteo Trentin (Quick Step Floors), Lachlan Morton (Dimension Data), Marcus Burghardt (Bora-Hansgrohe), Michael Matthews (Sunweb), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Lilian Calmejane, Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie), Matthew Hayman (Orica-Scott), Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), Jon Dibben (Team Sky), and Tsgabu Grmay (Bahrain-Merida). They established a maximum lead of four minutes before they were clawed back by a peloton led notably by CCC-Polkowice and Team Sky.

The race essentially began all over again once it reached Sölden, as Sagan et al were swept up and the road began to climb inexorably towards the summit. The early pace-making was performed by Izaguirre's Bahrain-Merida squad but it wasn't long before Katusha-Alpecin took over, first through Matvey Mamykin and then through the impressive Taaramae.

Frank was the first of the GC men to struggle, with some 14 kilometres still to go, but he was far from the last. Mikel Nieve (Sky) was dislodged next, before Pozzovivo, the yellow jersey, was dropped with more than 12 kilometres remaining.

At that juncture, the front group was down to just eight riders, as Taaramae led Spilak, Caruso, Kruijswijk, Dombrowski, Izaguirre, Jan Hirt (CCC-Polkowice) and Marc Soler (Movistar), but for all bar the Katusha duo, it was an exercise in grimly holding onto the wheel in front.

Soler was the next to fall back, followed by Hirt, but Izaguirre, Caruso and Kruijswijk didn't last much longer when faced with Taaramae's ferocious pace. They yielded with 10 kilometres to go and battled simply to contain the damage from there on in.

Izaguirre fared better than most, but his travails earlier in the week leave him 3:51 down on GC and with too much ground to make up. Caruso and Kruijswijk will need to be inventive to dislodge Spilak – and perhaps Saturday's novel 100-kilometre circuit race might be an invitation – but the Slovenian looks a convincing race leader.

Spilak's has been a most curious career. Winner of the Tour de Romandie in 2010 and the Tour de Suisse in 2015, he maintains a low profile, preferring to build his seasons around weeklong stage races rather than Grand Tours. The 30-year-old has not participated in a Grand Tour at all since he abandoned the 2014 Tour de France, and has not finished a three-week race since the 2011 Giro d'Italia, when he reached Milan in 117th place overall.

"We still have two hard days to come," Spilak said on Friday. "Tomorrow is a very short stage, a bit like a criterium and then there's the time trial. Tomorrow I think my team can control things, because it's a very strong team."

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