Tour de Suisse 2019: Stage 5

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse.

Race hub
Stage 4: Viviani beats Matthews and Sagan to victory
Geraint Thomas escapes serious injury in Tour de Suisse crash
Egan Bernal: Geraint Thomas crash looked really scary

We're about 20 minutes from the start of today's neutralised zone.

Today's stage is the longest of the race so far at 177km.

It looks like we'll be in for another sprint finish today, unless the breakaway makes it to the finish in Einsiedein.

As was the case yesterday, there are second- and third-cat climbs on the run in, but the sprinters shouldn't have any problems dealing with them.

The peloton roll out in five minutes.

And they're off. A 7km neutralised zone awaits, before the racing gets going in 15 minutes.

Of course, Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) won't be racing today. The Welshman crashed with 30km to go on yesterday's stage and was forced to abandon, though he didn't suffer any major injuries. Read the full story here.

Andrey Zeits (Astana) went down in the same crah and also left the race. He suffered a complex fracture of his left collarbone as well as a superficial rib fracture.

No other riders have failed to take the start today.

And the race is on! The peloton leave the neutralised zone and get stage 5 underway.

Here's some footage of the peloton rolling out today, from CCC Team's Twitter feed.

As withe yesterday's stage, today sees all the climbs and sprints packed into the second half of the stage. The first of them, an intermediate sprint, comes 129km into the day.

Four men are away early on. They are Bert-Jan Lindemann (Jumbo-Visma), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida) and Fabien Grellier (Total Direct Energie).

The quartet are already 55 seconds up on the peloton.

It's a pretty lumpy start to the stage, with a number of unclassified hills in the opening 40km.

Lindeman has dropped back from the break.

Kung is the best-placed man from the breakaway trio. He lies 25 seconds down on race leader Peter Sagan.

Grellier was out in the break on stage 2, while Kung and Mohoric tried to get away numerous times in the final kilometres yesterday.

It's a strong breakaway trio, but still it looks a big ask for them to stay away on today's stage. Maybe if it was a larger group...

The gap is up to 1:20 now.

162km remaining from 177km

With 15km of the stage gone, it looks like the peloton are happy with the makeup of this group.

Kung is the virtual leader on the road now.

Here's our full report along with results and gallery from yesterday's stage 4. Italian champion Elia Viviani took the win, outkicking Michael Matthews and Peter Sagan in Arlesheim.

Bora-Hansgrohe leads the peloton, unsurprisingly. Meanwhile, the break are now 2:40 up the road.

Bora are, of course, working on behalf of race leader Sagan, who is seeking his 18th career stage win at the Tour de Suisse today.

Here's our latest story on German sprinter Marcel Kittel, who is taking time away from the sport after terminating his contract with Katusha-Alpecin last month.

Jumbo-Visma have emerged as the leading team to offer him a path back to the sport, possibly next season. Team DS Merijn Zeeman talks to Cyclingnews about the possibility.

Here's a clip of the break out on the road, from the Tour de Suisse Twitter feed.

The riders have covered almost 40km in the opening hour, which is pretty quick considering the hilly terrain traversed so far.

The breakaway are 2:50 up on the peloton now.

Of the three breakaway riders, Mohoric has had the most successful season so far. He finished second at the Slovenian National TT Championships, third at the GP Lugano, fifth at Milan-San Remo, and ninth at Gent-Wevelgem. The 24-year-old is still looking for that elusive victory, though.

Kung already has two wins to his name this season – stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie, where he won from the break, and stage 3 at the Volta ao Algarve, a short individual time trial.

Fabien Grellier's biggest moment of the year came at the Tour of Oman. The Frenchman was caught by race winner Alexey Lutsenko just 100 metres short of the finish atop Green Mountain, eventually finishing in second place on the stage.

120km remaining from 177km

120km to go on the stage. No change in the situation.

It's all rolling roads now, until the riders hit the second category climb to Sattel after 125km.

Eurosport commentator Brian Smith takes a look at today's finish. It's uphill for the final 400 metres, which are on Swiss cobbles (i.e. far from the rough cobbles of Belgian or northern France). He tips Sagan to take victory.

112km remaining from 177km

After 65km of racing, Bora have the break under control, 2:25 up the road.

In case you missed it, here's Team Ineos' Egan Bernal's reaction to Geraint Thomas crashing out of the race yesterday. The young Colombian is the new #1 for Ineos here, and will look to make an impact in the mountains over the next two days.

99km remaining from 177km

The break are in the final 100km of the stage now. They covered the first two hours at an average of 39kph.

There's some suggestions going around that the final stage of the race will have to be altered, as the Sustenpass isn't yet clear for racing after a long winter. This has yet to be confirmed by race organisers, however. Take a look at the stage 9 profile below.

Team Ineos are up at the front of the peloton along with Bora now.

The break are around halfway through today's stage.

There's still a decent portion of valley roads to traverse before they hit the second-category climb.

Bora-Hansgrohe are still controlling the time gap, which remains at 2:50.

82km remaining from 177km

The riders have just passed through the town of Hochdorf, almost 100km into the stage.

The break are 30km from the start of the climb to Sattel.

The gap is dropping a little now. The break have an advantage of 2:10 over the peloton.

75km remaining from 177km

75km left to race now as the break approaches the first climb of the day.

The break's advantage is down to 1:50 now.

The riders have raced to the fastest timetable so far, at an average of 40kph.

Trek-Segafredo and Team Sunweb work at the front of the peloton. They're working for sprinters John Degenkolb and Michael Matthews, who should have a good chance on today's uphill sprint finish.

The break's advantage is down to 1:25 as they approach the climb.

47km remaining from 177km

Live pictures begin, and with 47km to go the break actually have 1:35 on the peloton.

The break are still working together at this point.

41km remaining from 177km

1:45 for the break now as they hit the climb. Kung led Grellier and Mohoric over the intermediate sprint.

Bora, Sunweb and Trek lead the way in the peloton.

38km remaining from 177km

Mohoric pushes on, leaving Kung and Grellier behind.

it's Kung chasing Mohoric while Grellier is some way further back.

Mohoric is 1:50 up on the peloton now.

The climb is 13km long at an average of 3.6% so not exactly a leg breaker.

32km remaining from 177km

Mohoric is still leading solo. Kung hasn't been able to make up the gap.

28km remaining from 177km

Mohoric leads over the KOM point. With Kung and Grellier back in the peloton it's Gavin Mannion (Rally UHC) and KOM leader Claudio Imhof (Switzerland) sweeping up a few extra points ahead of the Bora-led peloton.

If you're keeping an eye on the U23 Giro d'Italia you won't be shocked to hear that Colombia have once again dominated today. Race leader Andres Camilo Ardila won again, this time atop Passo Maniva. The next three places were all taken by Colombian riders. Tomorrow sees the peloton tackle the Passo di Mortirolo twice!

Mohoric is about to take on the third-category climb at Einsiedeim. It's 1.2km long at 5.8%. One minute back to the peloton.

24km remaining from 177km

Mohoric collects the points over the top.

Michael Schär goes down at the side of the peloton. Sagan moved across and accidentally touched Schär's front wheel. The CCC rider is helped by a spectator and is back up and running quickly.

Just 45 seconds for Mohoric now.

20km remaining from 177km

Mohoric passes through the finish line. There's just over 20km to go for him.

The peloton is closing in now – Mohoric is 30 seconds up the road.

16km remaining from 177km

He's riding in a time trial position with his arms draped over the bars, and passes through the final intermediate sprint. Further back, Matthews takes two bonus seconds.

15km remaining from 177km

15 seconds for Mohoric now. His time is almost up.

The peloton make the catch. Bora and Sunweb are up front.

12km remaining from 177km

The pace is very high in the peloton now. Hard to imagine anybody getting away and staying away here.

UAE, Bora, Total, Ineos and Sunweb all have mini-trains up front.

7km remaining from 177km

It's just a matter of waiting for the sprint at this point, and keeping an eye on which team assembles the best lead-out at the ideal time.

5km remaining from 177km

The peloton hit the final 5km of the stage.

They're flying along at over 60kph.

3km remaining from 177km

Bora and Sunweb control the peloton.

No one team is totally organised up front.

3km remaining from 177km

Ineos come to the front, leading Bernal. They're alongside Sunweb.

It seems like they're just keeping Bernal safe here, even within the final 3km.

The finish is uphill and on those cobblestones, remember.

1km remaining from 177km

Deceuninck-QuickStep take to the front into the final kilometre. The entire team is there.

Sagan is riding the QuickStep train once again.

Lampaert hits the front, then peels off for Morkov.

Sagan sits on Trentin, who is behind Viviani and Richeze.

Viviani opens the sprint as Trentin peels off around the final corner for some reason.

Sagan follows but he can't get around Viviani.

Another win for the Italian!

The black jersey beats the yellow jersey to the stage win. Eight in 2019 now for Viviani.

It was Richeze dropping back not Trentin, apologies. It looks like Jasper Stuyven took third.

Here's a shot of Viviani crossing the line.

A great run to the finish for QuickStep. They took to the front at around 1.5km to go, and judged the run-in to perfection with their multi-coloured leadout of best young rider Asgreen, Belgian champion Lampaert, Danish champion Mørkøv, Argentine champion Richeze and black jersey Viviani.

Viviani after the finish:

"It's good to win again here. The guys did an amazing job again. When they do a leadout like that they make my life really easy.

"We weren't sure [about the finish], so that was why you didn't see us in the front to pull earlier. When we passed through the finish line for the first time, we understood it would be a hard one, but with the best leadout you can make a difference, and that was the winning move.

"I'm ready [for the Tour], so I need to manage the next two weeks after Tour de Suisse and arrive there with the best shape I can. We are in the right way, we're really happy to get this big confidence for the Tour. We'll try to enjoy today's and yesterday's win and then we focus on the Tour. It's a lot of suffering in the next few days but I think it's good for the legs and for the shape."

Sagan holds on to the race lead and the points classification lead. Claudio Imhof and Kasper Asgreen keep the mountain and young rider jerseys too.

Stage result

1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep 4:18:26
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
3 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek-Segafredo
4 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott
5 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb
6 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
7 Fabian Lienhard (Swi) Switzerland
8 Stan Dewulf (Bel) Lotto Soudal
9 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data
10 Patrick Bevin (NZl) CCC Team

General classification after stage 5

1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 15:55:48
2 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 0:00:14
3 Kasper Asgreen (Den) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:21
4 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:22
5 Lawson Craddock (USA) EF Education First 0:00:27
6 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott 0:00:38
7 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:39
8 Jonathan Castroviejo (Spa) Team Ineos 0:00:40
9 Luis León Sanchez (Spa) Astana Pro Team
10 Winner Anacona (Col) Movistar Team

Here's a look at tomorrow's stage, which should shake up the race in a big way. Expect the climbers to come to the fore on the first summit finish of the race.

Deceuninck-QuickStep are on 39 wins for the season after today's stage. They have Enric Mas leading their GC challenge this week. Number 40 tomorrow?

Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) is the favourite for the win, while various others are in with a shot too, including Hugh Carthy (EF Education First), Luis León Sánchez (Astana) and Simon Spilak (Katusha-Alpecin).

Click here for a brief report and results from today's stage. The full report will be up shortly.

That's all for our live coverage of stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for more from stage 6!