Tour de Suisse: Tolhoek wins stage 6

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Baby-faced assassin Antwan Tolhoek (Jumbo-Visma) soloed to the win on the first mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse. The Dutch rider held off a late charge from Tour de France contender Egan Bernal (Team Ineos) to claim his maiden WorldTour win. Francois Bidard (AG2R La Momdiale) finished third on the stage 6 finish in Flumserberg on a day that changed the overall complexion of the race and saw Peter Sagan lose his overnight lead.

"It's really special for me, three years ago I was here with Roompot and I won the mountain jersey here in such a big race like this one," Tolhoek said. "I was really happy here and now I've taken my first pro victory here at the WorldTour level, it's really special for me. Also, the way we rode as a team over the last few days, we are only five guys and we keep fighting every day. My teammates were pulling really hard today and I'm so happy I was able to finish it off.

"I heard in the radio [Egan Bernal had attacked] but I didn't want to look back because the last year in California he beat me. I was saying to myself, this can't happen today, I will win today and I'm really happy with it."

Tolhoek was part of the early break and went into the final climb with a two-minute advantage over the chasing field. The 25-year-old was quick to establish his dominance on his breakaway companions and although he was briefly joined by a handful of riders from the 25-man break the Jumbo-Visma rider was head and shoulders above the opposition.

The only scare came when Team Ineos set an electric pace in the final 3km of the climb as they looked to set up Bernal. The Colombian blew the GC group apart with a vicious acceleration and although he cut through the remnants of the early break he was unable to topple the determined Tolhoek.

The Jumbo-Visma rider could only afford to celebrate when he rounded the final corner and had the line in sight. Bernal finished 17 seconds down with Bidard a further seven in arrears.

The result moved Bernal into the lead with Rohan Dennis (Bahrain Merida) doing enough on the final climb to move into second. The Australian was unable to follow the pure climbers like Bernal but set his own pace on the last ascent and is a favourite to win the stage 8 time trial after also winning the opening individual test on stage 1.

Patrick Konrad (Bora hansgrohe) finished third on the stage and moved into third on GC but there were significant time losses for several GC hopefuls. Enric Mas lost 1:08 on the stage, while Marc Soler faired marginally better, losing 46 seconds.

How it unfolded

After the sprint stages, Thursday was the first chance for the GC riders and climbers to flex their muscles at the Tour de Suisse.

On the descent of the first climb a break of 25 formed with Gian Friescke, Claudio Imhof, Simon Pellaud (Swiss national squad), Rui Costa, Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates), Bert-Jan Lindeman, Antwan Tolhoek (Jumbo-Visma), Robert Stannard, Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott), Stan Dewulf, Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Francois Bidard, Aurelien Paret Peintre (AG2R La Mondiale), Daniel Oss (Bora-Hansgrohe), Luis Mas (Movistar), Nikias Arndt (Team Sunweb), Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida), Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Tom Scully (EF Education First), Paddy Bevin (CCC Team), Nathan Haas (Katusha-Alpecin), Ben King (Dimension Data), Pim Ligthart (Total-Direct Energie) and, Colin Joyce (Rally UHC).

They established a lead as the kilometres raced by and with 30km to go the advantage stood at 4:12 over the bunch. A wrong turn saw Trentin, Joyce, and Imhof briefly distance the rest of the break but with the final ascent to Flumserberg to come all thoughts turned to the first major ascent of this year's race.

At the foot of the climb and with the leading trio caught, Ben King set the pace. He was quickly passed by Tolhoek who had no intention of finding a companion to work with. Mas and then Bevin made it across to create a leading trio but only the CCC rider offered Tolhoek any assistance.

Rui Costa and Bidard set-up a counter attack but with 4.5km to go Tolhoek, Bevin and Mas still had over a minute on the Ineos peloton and 30 seconds on the rest of the break. With 3.3km to go Tolhoek made his next move, and this time there was no response from Mas or Bevin who remained rooted to his saddle. The only question was whether the Dutch rider had enough of an advantage on the main field.

It looked too close to call when Kenny Ellisonde set a blistering pace that only Bernal and a handful of contenders could follow and within a blink of an eye the Colombian was clear and cutting through the break with ease. He rushed passed Bevin and Mas as if they were standing still and made Rui Costa look ordinary as up ahead Tolhoek's shoulders began to rock his face tightened with pain.

But even Bernal couldn't keep his pace at such incredible speeds and he too slowed inside the final kilometre as the road rose once more. It was all Tolhoek needed to ensure he claimed a maiden win at this level.

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