Tour de Suisse: Ulissi wins stage 5

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Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) claimed stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse with a well-timed sprint effort at the summit finish at Leukerbad, while Richie Porte (BMC Racing Team) finished in the front group to move into the yellow jersey of race leader.

The first mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse was animated by an ambitious attack from Mikel Landa (Movistar), who accelerated forcefully out of the group of favourites with a little over six kilometres to race. Landa's offensive put paid to Stefan Küng's hopes of retaining the yellow jersey, and when the Swiss rider was dropped from the group, his teammate Tejay van Garderen took up the reins of pursuit at the front.

Despite van Garderen's efforts, Landa was able to open an advantage of 15 seconds over the principal contenders as he bounded across in the big ring to earlier escapees Hugh Carthy (EF Education First-Drapac) and François Bidard (AG2R La Mondiale). Carthy was able to resist Landa's forcing at first, but eventually had to yield as the Basque kept turning over his mammoth gear.

Landa's hopes of stage victory were initially aided by a distinct lack of collaboration in the chasing group, which spread across the road after a speculative acceleration from Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), and it took a fine intervention from Astana's Jesper Hansen, who worked diligently on behalf of Jakob Fuglsang, to bring some order to the pursuit. Even so, Landa still had the bulk of his buffer intact as he entered the final two kilometres, where he showed few signs of relenting.

The situation changed, however, on the exposed road to the summit. The wind was such that the flamme rouge arch had not been inflated, and instead two volunteers held signs on the roadside to denote the final kilometre. Landa looked to have a winning margin at that point, but he visibly began to struggle as the last kilometre wore on and the chasers drew closer.

Landa's fate was sealed by an acceleration from Mathias Frank (AG2R La Mondiale) with 400 metres to go, and all of a sudden, the chasing group was upon him. The final kick to the line lent itself perfectly to Ulissi's talents as a finisseur, and his winning effort here was a near replica of his sprint atop Montecopiolo on the 2014 Giro d'Italia.

"This win means a lot, the Tour de Suisse is a very important race," Ulissi said. "I came out of the Giro in good form and I stayed focused because I knew there were stages here suited to me. Today was one of them and I'm really very happy to have won."

Only Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) could come close to getting on terms with Ulissi in the final metres, but he had to settle for second place, while Tom-Jelte Slagter (Dimension Data) took third ahead of Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo).

Porte finished in eighth place, just behind Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and in the same time as Ulissi, enough to put him into the yellow jersey of race leader as his teammate Küng came in more than three minutes down, while van Garderen was dislodged from the front group in the final kilometre.

Porte carries a lead of 20 seconds over the Sunweb pair of Kelderman and Sam Oomen into stage 6, while Mas lies a further second back in fourth. Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) is now fifth at 29 seconds, while Quintana is sixth at 33 seconds.

Landa, meanwhile, paid a price for his onslaught and was unable to hold the wheels after he was engulfed on the final approach to the line. The Basque came home 12 seconds down, and now lies 10th overall, 47 seconds behind Porte.

How it unfolded

The first mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse began abruptly with the category 1 ascent of the Col du Pillon, and the pace was brisk amid the opening flurry of attacks on its slopes. No move gained any traction in those breathless opening kilometres as Romain Sicard (Direct Energie) led the bunch over the summit, but a break worthy of the name eventually formed in the valley that followed.

Daniel Oss (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) and Sylvan Dillier (AG2R La Mondiale) went clear with a little under 100 kilometres remaining, and they were joined soon afterwards by Larry Warbasse (Aqua Blue Sport), Willie Smit (Katusha-Alpecin) and Paul Ourselin (Direct Energie).

That sextet covered the first two hours at a stinging 48kph and had a three-minute buffer over the BMC-led peloton as they approached the day's second climb to Montana Village. Crans-Montana was the site of a stylish stage win by Laurent Fignon on the 1984 Tour de France, and two French riders went on the offensive from the peloton on the climb's slopes, with the Direct Energie duo of Lilian Calmejane and Sicard setting out in pursuit of the break, later to be joined by Omar Fraile (Astana).

Up ahead, meanwhile, Warbasse had opted to press alone from the break, and the US champion crested the summit with a lead of a minute over his erstwhile companions and a little over two in hand on the BMC-led peloton.

After working his way up to the remnants of the break, Calmejane proceeded to set out in lone pursuit of Warbasse on the false flat that preceded the final haul to Leukerbad, catching the American as the climb began and then dropping him with a little over 12 kilometres to go.

By that point, however, the yellow jersey group was already closing in on the leaders, with Greg Van Avermaet and Alessandro De Marchi prominent for BMC, and Calmejane was caught with seven kilometres remaining. Shortly afterwards, Carthy and Bidard availed of some steeper slopes to go on the attack, before Landa delivered his show of strength. It initially looked like a winning attack, only to peter out within sight of the line.

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