Welshman maintains Ineos collective can take on Pogacar and Roglic
Tour de Suisse 2022 overview
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Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) takes overall victory after stage 8 time trial, Jakob Fulgsang (left) in third overall and Sergio Higuita (right) in second (Image credit: Getty)
Sergio Higuita moved into the yellow jersey on stage 7(Image credit: Tim de Waele/Getty Images)
Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) stormed around the 25.6km time trial course in Vaduz and won stage 8 of the 2022 Tour de Suisse. He recorded a time three seconds faster than Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), who claimed the overall title on the final day.
Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) was the final rider on the course, holding a two-second advantage on Thomas, and had lost a grip on the yellow jersey in the opening kilometres. He managed to finish 11th on the flat stage in the capital of Liechtenstein and secured second place overall, 1:12 behind Thomas. Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech) claimed the final spot on the GC podium.
For Evenepoel, it was his 10th victory of the season. Joining him and Thomas on the stage podium was Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), who was 11 seconds off the winning pace in the time trial.
With the yellow jersey, Thomas became the first-ever British winner of the Tour de Suisse. The other classifications were sewn up ahead of the final day of racing - Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) taking the climber's polka-dot jersey, Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) confirming the points competition and Higuita receiving the best young rider designation.
On the final climb to the ski resort village of Malbun, Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) soloed to victory on stage 7 of the Tour de Suisse. Just off the podium in fourth, Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) took a chunk of time from his rivals and moved into the yellow jersey.
GC leader Jakob Fulgsang (Israel Premier Tech) was distanced on the climb and lost 29 seconds to Higuita and 18 seconds to Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). Higuita now has a two-second advantage over Thomas with only a time trial remaining to decide a winner on Sunday.
A cluster of COVID-19 cases saw four teams, and a handful of other riders, leave the Tour de Suisse en masse and reduced the peloton to little more than 80 riders when the race began in Ambri for 196 mountainous kilometres to the finish in Liechtenstein. Along the hors categorie ascent to Malbun, Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) looked like he was destined for glory, but he was caught and passed by Pinot with 2km to go. The Frenchman claimed his first WorldTour victory since a mountain stage at the 2019 Tour de France.
Nico Denz (Team DSM) came around Clement Champoussin (AG2R-Citroën) and won stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse with a bike throw to the line at the mountaintop finish at Mooslap.
Jose Herrada (Cofidis) was third and the USA’s Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) was fourth after all being in the break of the day. Fausto Masnada (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) was fifth.
Riders tackled the queen stage of the eight-day Swiss stage race, starting in Locarno on a 177.5km course with two major hors categorie climbs and a summit finish at Moosalp. However, overnight race leader Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) was one of many riders who tested positive for COVID-19 and did not start the stage.
Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech) inherited the number one spot the day, and defended a one-second lead by finishing in a group with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers). Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) was third overall, just 10 seconds back.
With the stage 5 victory on Thursday, Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) took over as the general classification leader in the Tour de Suisse. He emerged from a select group of riders and held off Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), who finished a close second.
Jakob Fuglsang (Israel-Premier Tech) claimed the final spot on the podium with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) in fourth place. In the last 150 metres, the Russian powered around Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), who held the lead into the final corner, and then just held off a surging Powless. Schachmann took fifth place.
Stevie Williams (Bahrain Victorious), who held the GC lead for the opening four days, dropped early in the stage and is now 55th overall, more than 27 minutes off the new pace. As the new GC leader, Vlasov is the man to beat on the three showdown stages this weekend. He has a six-second lead over Fuglsang while Thomas is another second back in third.
Daryl Impey (Israel-Premier Tech) seized the day from a bunch sprint and won stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse. Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) was second just ahead of Søren Kragh Andersen (Team DSM).
The 37-year-old Impey hit the ignition and blasted past Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) on the left side of the narrow finish in Brunnen, Switzerland. Bettiol hung on for fourth and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) was fifth.
The South African earned his first victory on the WorldTour since a win at the 2019 Tour de France, having endured two seasons of injuries and comebacks.
There were no changes in the classification standings on Wednesday, as Stephen Williams (Bahrain Victorious) remained in the GC lead for a fourth day, Stage 2 winner Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) continued with the points jersey, Quinn SImmons (Trek-Segafredo) in the mountains jersey, and Andreas Kron (Lotto-Soudal) in the same spot as the best young rider.
Peter Sagan (TotalEnergies) returned to the winner's circle Tuesday with a powerful sprint in Grenchen to win stage 3 of the Tour de Suisse. Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) followed for second and Alexander Kristoff (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) was third.
Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) took fourth in the bunch finish ahead of Alex Aranburu (Movistar) and Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates).
It was the first victory of the 2022 season for the Slovakian, who has struggled with bouts of illness this spring, his last win coming in September of last year. The stage 3 win was the 18th Tour de Suisse stage win of Sagan’s career.
Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) was expected to contest the sprint, but was caught in a crash with 4km to go and finished 53 seconds behind Sagan.
Stevie Williams (Bahrain Victorious) finished safely in the peloton to retain the yellow jersey as the race leader, while Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) kept the mountains classification lead. Simmons had been part of a six-rider breakaway, which was reeled in with under 14km to go in the 176.9km stage across the Jura hills.
Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) rode to a solo victory in stage 2 of the Tour de Suisse, holding off a charging peloton in Aesch for the first professional victory of his career.
Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) charged to the front of the large chasing bunch and raised his arms in celebration as he crossed the line, which was for second place, 38 seconds behind Leknessund. The Italian did not realise the young Norwegian was the only breakaway rider not caught and was already home with the victory. Michael Matthews (BikeExchange-Jayco) finished in third.
The 198km stage from Küsnacht to Aesch began with eight riders escaping in the opening 30km - Leknessund, Jonas Rutsch (EF Education-EasyPost), Joel Suter (UAE Team Emirates), Matt Holmes (Lotto Soudal), Michael Schär (AG2R Citroën), Matteo Badilatti (Groupama-FDJ), Leonardo Basso (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies). They were joined by a duo of Swiss Cycling riders, Simon Vitzthum and Claudio Imhof, to make it 10.
The 2,775 metres of climbing across 198km proved daunting, and with 16km to go Leknessund attacked of the few riders left with him, going alone from the ascent of the category 2 Challpass (6.3km at 6.3%) and 14km to the finish from the summit.
Stevie Williams (Bahrain Victorious) held onto the yellow jersey and leads Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) by four seconds. Andreas Kron (Lotto Soudal) was in third, six seconds back, and Leknessund moved to fourth overall, seven seconds down.
Stephen Williams (Bahrain Victorious) won stage 1 of the Tour de Suisse and earned the first leader's jersey at the eight-day race.
The 26-year-old Welshman was the fastest of a small group that emerged in the closing kilometres of the hilly race, and sprinted to the win ahead of Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Andreas Kron (Lotto Soudal) in Küsnacht.
The Tour de Suisse 177.6km opener started in the city of Küsnacht, and took in four laps of a 45.7-kilometre circuit featuring two climb, Pfannenstiel and Küsnachter Berg. A total of 153 riders signed on and an early breakaway formed with seven riders - Davide Villella (Cofidis), Casper Pedersen (Team DSM), Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma), Johan Jacobs (Movistar Team), Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo), Chad Haga (Human Powered Health) and Simon Vitzthul (Swiss Cycling).
With 7km to go, the final riders in the break were caught. Headed toward the final ascent of the Küsnachter Berg, EF Education-EasyPost's Neilson Powless was the first to surge out of the field and there was a split of about 20 riders at the front. Williams proved the fastest in that small group.
