Tour de Suisse stage 8 Live - Sweeny leads after two waves of riders with GC fight to come

Winner of the mountains jersey of this year's Giro d'Italia, Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana), sets off on his ride. He has, unsurprisingly, not really been involved in the GC fight.

The final wave of three is on the road with Samitier rolling off the ramp.

Just over five minutes until the final wave begins with Samitier.

Sweeny overtook three riders on his way to the best time. They were Fabio van den Bossche (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Patrick Gamper (Jayco-AlUla) and Mathis Le Berre (Arkea-B&B Hotels).

The third wave of riders is due to set off at 15:19 local time with Sergio Samitier (Cofidis) kicking things off.

Current Top 5

1. Harry Sweeny (AUS) EF Education-EayPost 29'28"
2. Pello Bilbao (ESP) Bahrain Victorious +34"
3. António Morgado (POR) UAE Team Emirates-XRG +48"
4. Felix Engelhardt (GER) Jayco-AlUla +52"
5. Sylvain Moniquet (BEL) Lotto +1'14"

With just Vergaerde left to finish in this wave, the top places look solid for now.

Second best time at finish...

Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) - 30'02"

That puts him 34" behind leader, Sweeny.

Third best time at finish...

Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla) - 30'20"

He goes 52" slower than Sweeny. Some huge gaps here.

Second best time at the finish...

António Morgado (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) - 30'16"

That is 48" slower than Sweeny who still holds the top spot.

Gal Glivar (Alpecin-Deceuninck) goes 3rd at the finish. He slots in 1'39" behind Sweeny in the standings.

Meanwhile, Paul Lapeira (Decathlon-AG2R) goes 6th at the finish, 2'20" down on Sweeny.

Matteo Badilatti (Q36.5) goes 6th at the time check 55" down on the leader.

Second best time at the split by Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious). He is 24" down on Sweeny.

New fastest time

Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost) - 29'28"

That is 1'14" faster than Moniquet. What a ride.

António Morgado (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) goes second fastest at the split. He is 41" down on Sweeny.

Also, Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla) goes 4th at the check, 54" down.

The last man of wave two, Otto Vergaerde (Lidl-Trek), has set off on his ride.

Van Moer has slipped away a bit and finishes provisionally in 7th place 2'03" down on Moniquet.

Laengen sets the 4th best time at the finish. He is 57" down on Moniquet.

Nobody is coming close to Sweeny's split time. He is looking good to become the new race leader.

Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost) goes fastest at the split. Brilliant ride so far by the Australian rider.

Brent Van Moer (Lotto) is on a good ride as he goes second at the time check. He is just under 15" down on teammate, Moniquet.

Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is the best time from the second wave, so far. He is just 30" down at the split on Moniquet.

None of the latest starters appear to be troubling the leading time set by Moniquet.

Surprisingly, Bjerg is well down at the first split in 31st place, over three minutes down. He is having a very bad day on the bike.

There are now 17 riders out on course. No updated times at the split as of yet but it looks as though Bjerg, Van Poppel, Vermote, Askey and Mayrhofer have all passed it.

Racing begins again with the second wave of riders. Bjerg is on course followed by Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor).

It is a beautiful day in Switzerland with temperatures at around 28°C in nearby Luzern.

Racing is set to commence with the 2nd wave at 13:23 local time with Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who may have a good crack at this.

Current Top 5

1. Sylvain Moniquet (BEL) Lotto 30'42"
2. Jimmy Janssens (BEL) Alpecin-Deceuninck +48"
3. Samuele Battistella (ITA) EF Education-EasyPost +56"
4. Julius Johansen (DEN) UAE Team Emirates-XRG +1'12"
5. David González (ESP) Q36.5 +1'14"

The first wave of riders have finished. There is around 45 minutes wait now for the next wave.

New fastest time

Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto) - 30'42"

That puts him 48" faster than previous leader, Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

Janssens looks like he may be the leader after the first wave of riders. There will soon be a break after Battistella (EF Education-EasyPost) crosses the line to allow the riders back down the mountain.

Five riders have officially finished...

1. Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 31'30"
2. Grignard (Lotto) +1'17"
3. Uhlig (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +3'09"
4. Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ) +3'25"
5. De Buyst (Lotto) +3'53"

Bissegger only managed the 4th best time at the time check. He is almost a minute down on Janssens.

However, there has been no timings given to Edmondson who, according to trackers, is going to finish first despite starting second.

Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is the fastest so far at the half way point, he is 51" ahead of Sebastian Grignard (Lotto).

One rider that may be interesting to watch is coming up next, former Swiss and European time trial champion, Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale). It is way too hilly for him, really. But, he may set the early benchmark time.

The first 10 riders are now out on course.

The second rider off the ramp, Alex Edmondson (Picnic-PostNL) has already caught Le Gac on the slopes to Stockhütte.

Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ) has started his ride and the final stage of the Tour de Suisse has begun.

Just over five minutes until Le Gac kicks off the final stage of the men's Tour de Suisse 2025.

Vauquelin has shown this year that he is very strong on TTs that finish on a climb. He won the final stage of the Étoile de Bessèges earlier this year to confirm his overall victory.

One thing he is strong at is a test against the clock on a climb. However, he was against the likes of Dylan Teuns, Kevin Geniets, Pierre Latour and the likes and not, with respect to them, a rider like Almeida.

Almeida did gain back some time on Vauquelin yesterday, but it was just 6" of bonuses as the Portuguese star managed to come around a very late attack by the race leader as well as Scottish rider, Oscar Onley to take the stage.

However, Almeida and the others all seemed to be running on fumes with none of them able to get an advantage. Only Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) managed a gap but he was also hauled back in the end.

After yesterday's brutal fight to the line, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) does not see himself as the favourite due to the time trialing skill of Kévin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels)...

"I don't think I'm the favourite for overall victory, Kevin Vauquelin is also strong in the TT, so it's going to be tough. But I'm going to give everything I have,"

And as we wait for the stage to kick off with Le Gac rolling off the ramp, why not catch up on all the action from yesterday with our post race report...

>>> Tour de Suisse: João Almeida win stage 7 battle for GC seconds before decisive TT

Here are all the start times for the riders today with the first, Olivier Le Gac (Groupama-FDJ), starting at 11:38 local time.

>>> Tour de Suisse stage 8 mountain time trial start times

Today's stage is 10.1km long and is entirely uphill with a finish at the ski station of Stockhütte after starting in Beckenried on thee banks of Lake Lucerne.

Hello and welcome to the eighth and final stage of the Tour de Suisse men 2025 here on CyclingNews' live report page.