Richard Carapaz wins Tour de Suisse

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Gino Mäder (Bahrain Victorious) won stage 8 of the Tour de Suisse while Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) sealed the overall victory. 

Carapaz followed attacks by Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-Nippo) on the ascent of Gotthard Pass before riding into the finish and maintaining his 17-second advantage. 

Meanwhile, Mäder escaped the leading group on the final climb and rode down into the finish with Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) before beating him in the sprint finish in Andermatt. 

Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck-QuickStep) led the overall favourites group into the finish nine seconds behind Mäder. 

“I’m really happy it’s a team victory as we’ve all worked together really well,” said Carapaz. 

“When you know you do things well you always get your reward and we have got a lot of confidence for what is to come. 

Carapaz was asked whether the Tour De France was a goal for him or if he will be supporting Geraint Thomas. 

“The truth is this is a showing of the strength of the team that we have and of course I am going to share the leadership with Geraint,” Carapaz added. 

“We just want to win the Tour (de France) and depending how it goes and we are going to go there with a strong team.” 

It was Swiss rider Mäder’s second win of the season after winning from a breakaway in stage 6 of the Giro d’Italia.  

Mäder showed his descending skills to bridge the gap to Woods at the head of the race in the battle for stage glory. 

Working well together the pair reached Andermatt with a nine-second advantage before sprinting with Mader the strongest and taking the win. 

“I came to the Tour de Suisse with the ambition to do well on general classification,” said Mäder. 

“I messed that up on stage 3 and that (to win stage 8) I’m just incredibly happy. If they (the chasers) caught us I would have finished with nothing but at least I would have had a second place. 

“And then I was just hoping something was left in my legs and in my head that keeps me going. It is a big win and the way I won today was completely different to the way I won out of a breakaway. 

“I think I can say now I’ve arrived.” 

How it unfolded

Just three mountain passes and 159.5 kilometres were between Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and overall victory with stage 8 that started and finished in Andermatt. 

However, after his emphatic time trial the previous day Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-Nippo) started the day just 17 seconds behind. 

Despite being third in the overall standings Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) missed the final stage to make his way home for the birth of his first child. 

The start saw riders climb the first ascent of the Oberalp Pass after just a kilometre into the stage, in a reversal of yesterday’s time trial. 

From the drop of the neutralised flag Diego Juan Alba (Movistar) attacked who was quickly reeled in and counter attacked by Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) which sparked the race into action with riders left scattered across the Oberalp Pass with 150 kilometres remaining. 

Poels had a lead of 15 seconds at the top taking the King of the Mountains points while behind a contested sprint saw Sergio Samitier (Movistar) take second and David de la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates) in third with Antonio Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) in fourth as they battled it out for the classification. 

On the descent, a group of five riders went clear and bridged across to Poels and during the following 16.5-kilometre long Lukmanier Pass a group of 15 riders would form the day’s breakaway. 

The King of the Mountains battle also went on with the riders battling for honours making their way into the break. 

However, it was Poels who took maximum points at the top of the Lukmanier Pass ahead of De la Cruz and Samitier while Nibali was fourth again, virtually losing the jersey to De la Cruz but leaving a close battle in the competition on the final climb. 

After pushing the pace along the valley road Soren Kragh Anderson, who was one of three Team DSM riders in the breakaway, was forcing the pace as the gap to the peloton fluctuated around the two-minute mark. 

The 15-man breakaway, which had a lead of 1:30 on the bunch with 40 kilometres remaining, started to split with the group splitting and then re-forming while others got dropped under the pressure. 

Passing the second intermediate sprint Dries Devenyns (Deceuninck-Quick Step) led a split of four riders including Nans Peters (AG2R Citroen Team) and Team DSM riders Tiesj Benoot and ‘best young rider’ category leader Andreas Leknessund before Herman Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Victorious) also bridged across. 

However, as they started the final 13-kilometre climb of the Gotthard Pass the pace went up in the peloton and the breakaway saw their gap decimated with eventually only Benoot and Pernsteiner remaining as Ineos Grenadiers set the tempo. 

Pernsteiner was the last man standing from the breakaway leaving Benoot to go alone with 20 kilometres remaining and a gap of 20 seconds over the peloton. 

On a paved/cobbled section of the climb with 18 kilometres remaining Nielson Powless (EF Education-Nippo) was the first rider to try and break the Ineos stranglehold leading to the catch of Pernsteiner. 

Uran then attacked two kilometres from the top of the Gotthard Pass but was instantly followed by Carapaz as the riders hugged the side of the road to find the smoothest part. 

As Uran eased his attack Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) launched a counter-attack and was joined by Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck-QuickStep). 

As the summit neared Woods cracked Cattaneo jumping out of a hairpin to go alone. 

Meanwhile, behind Uran had another effort to try and distance Carapaz and gain the 17 seconds for overall victory but the Ecuadorian was glued to his rival’s wheel. 

Woods crested the Gotthard Pass first with a 17-second lead over a chasing Gino Mäder (Bahrain Victorious) while Eddie Dunbar (Ineos Grenadiers) was keeping the pace high for Carapaz. 

With 20 King of the Mountains’ points available at the top of the Gotthard Pass the surge by Woods also won him the competition off De la Cruz. 

Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) sat in third overall before the day’s stage and was dropped towards the top of the Gotthard Pass leaving Jakob Fuglsang (Astana-Premier Tech) to drive the favourites group down to the finish and leapfrog his rival for third by four seconds. 

Meanwhile, Mäder bridged the gap to Woods on the descent before the pair worked together and reached Andermatt with a nine-second advantage before sprinting for victory with Mäder the strongest. 

Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck-QuickStep) led the overall favourites group into the finish including overall winner Carapaz and runner-up Uran. 

Schachmann finished 12 seconds behind the favourites group and lost third place overall to Fuglsang.