One of the very first rider Rigoberto Urán set a brilliant early time 12’05. 54” faster than previous best, Astana’s Harold Tejada. Emanuel Buchmann came close with 2nd best 17”, Vincenzo Nibali not too bad either 8th best with 18”, when he came in.
Noone would beat Urán in Lugano, he won the prologue in front of Richard Carapaz and Primož Roglic.
Niklas Eg took part in todays breakaway with Einer Augusto Rubio, Fabian Lienhard, Lilian Calmejane, Maurits Lammertink and Tobias Bayer. Rubio won the KoM at Simplonpass and thereby also the jersey.
Julian Alaphilippe had the best legs and won the stage with 14” to Rigoberto Urán, Primož Roglic and Adam Yates. Rigoberto Urán now lead the race with 8” to Primož Roglic and 18” to Julian Alaphilippe.
Vincenzo Nibali finished 7th at 1’10. He is also 7th in GC at 1'22.
Alexander Kamp joined the early breakaway with Lilian Calmejane and Davide Gabburo. For a while it looked like they might succeed, with a gap of almost 5 minutes, but they did not work together and lost the opportunity. As the only one to survive long enough Calmejane took 3 KoM points, moving up to third in the competition.
As expected, it came to a sprint, won by Danny Van Poppel, in front of Phil Bauhaus and Sam Bennett. This was Van Poppel’s third victory this season, after he also won stages in UAE Tour and Tirreno - Adriatico. The GC remains unchanged.
The morning breakaway was Lotto Soudal’s Matthew Holmes, Bardiani’s Giovanni Visconti and Alpecin’s Jay Vine. Holmes took the 12 points at Scheltenpas (cat.1). The breakaway was over before they reached the 2nd climb.
19 riders reached the finish line in the first group, the reduced sprint was won by Peter Sagan in front of Michael Matthews and Zdenek Štybar. This was Sagan’s third victory this season, after also winning two stages in Tour de Romandie. GC 5th, Richard Carapaz lost 3'08 and dropped out of top 10. Vincenzo Nibali advanced to 6th.
Gianluca Brambilla took part in today’s break, the others were Cofidis’s André Carvalho, AG2R’s Julien Duval and Movistar’s Carlos Verona. The breakaway was caught with 19 km left.
The stage was won by Cees Bol in front of Sam Bennett and Giacomo Nizzolo. Cees Bol’s first victory of this season. The stage had no impact on the GC. Best from Trek – Segafredo was Edward Theuns 8th.
Nicola Conci joined the morning break, with Philippe Gilbert and Carlos Verona. Conci had good legs and took his first 9 KoM points on the stage. With a 29 km/h headwind most of the time, it was a difficult day in the break. They were caught, right after Conci took the last KoM. Julian Alaphilippe still leads the KoM with 24 points.
Danny Van Poppel won the stage in front of Cees Bol and Pascal Ackermann. His 2nd stage victory of the tour. With a good lead-out from Alexander Kamp, Edward Theuns finished 6th. The best stage result from the team in this race, so far. The GC was unchanged, Rigoberto Urán still lead the race with 8” to Primož Roglic and 18” to Julian Alaphilippe.
The ITT in this edition of Tour de Suisse contains quite a lot of climbing, favoring climbers over the true time trail experts. Niklas Eg set a pretty good early time 53’21, taking the hot seat for a period. He was to be beaten by Hermann Pernsteiner with just one 1”. New best times was later set by Jesús Herrada 52’54, Peter Sagan 52’25, Lawson Craddock 52’13, Rohan Dennis 51’12 and Richard Carapaz 51’09.
In GC top 10, Emanuel Buchmann set new best with 51’04. A few riders later Vincenzo Nibali came in with 51’22 at that point 5th. Race leader Rigoberto Urán finished the race with the best time today 50’45. This was Urán’s 2nd victory of the tour, both in ITT stages. After relative bad results from Julian Alaphilippe, Adam Yates and Wout Poels, Nibali could move up to 4th in GC.
Lorenzo Rota from Intermarché Wanty Gobert opened the stage with a solo attack. He was later joined by Tiesj Benoot, Simone Petilli, Maxim Van Gils, Matteo Jorgenson and 2nd in KoM Einer Augusto Rubio. The pack was quite fast, also Trek – Segafredo participated in the chase. The break were caught before the KoM.
Richard Carapaz attacked and took the KoM, getting a lead of more than a minute, but he was caught on the final uphill ramp. The decisive attack came from Primož Roglic. Emanuel Buchmann and Adam Yates the only two to immediately react. The trio got a gap to a group with Vincenzo Nibali, race leader Rigoberto Urán, Aleksandr Vlasov and Simon Yates. Primož Roglic won the stage in front of Adam Yates and Emanuel Buchmann. This was Roglic’s 4th victory of the season. He also took over the KoM lead.
Nibali cracked and lost time on the last 1.5 km, finishing 7th. Adam Yates gained the most moving from 7th to 4th in GC. Nibali fell to 6th. Rigoberto Urán leads the GC with just 14" to Primož Roglic, 1'28 to Emanuel Buchmann.
The final stage of Tour de Suisse is long and hard, with two difficult Hors catégorie climbs, both over Glaubenbielen, before we reach the final somewhat easier uphill finish at Sörenberg ski resort. All our best climbers Niklas Eg, Brambilla and Nibali is feeling good this morning, providing some optimism. The morning breakaway is large and quite dangerous, with some very skilled riders, including Pozzoviv, Majka, Gino Mäder, Marczynski, and Jungels.
The break gets more than 5 minutes, but it drops fast over the first climb of Glaubenbielen and although Gino Mäder also takes Glaubenbielen the 2nd time, the favorite group is now close. Over the top Nibali just has Niklas Eg left, but Brambilla comes back at the descent. Pozzoviv, Mäder and Jungels got 1’23 starting the last 24 km towards Sörenberg. Jungels makes the last desperate acceleration with 12 km left and the break is over. Gino Mäder takes 41 KoM points today, winning the jersey in front of Bob Jungels.
A few early attempts are reeled in and several riders dropped from the favorite group, before we reach the short uphill sprint. Vincenzo Nibali, still feeling strong, times the sprint well and takes the stage in front of Wout Poels and Julian Alaphilippe. This was Nibali’s 2nd victory of the season after he also won a stage in Catalunya. Rigoberto Urán won the GC in front of Primož Roglic and Emanuel Buchmann. Nibali finished 5th overall.
Toms Skujiņš won the Latvian ITT National Championship Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier won the Eritrean ITT National Championship Vincenzo Nibali won the Italian ITT National Championship
WORLD TOUR RANKING
Before the start of Tour de France
Individual:
Jonas Vingegaard still lead the world tour, just as he was before the Giro. He had GC wins in Paris–Nice and Catalunya, 2nd in Romandie and Basque Country and 3rd in Dauphine.
Team:
Ineos have taken over the team lead from Jumbo-Visma at the World Tour, with Carapaz Giro victory and victories in Basque Country, Liége and Strade Bianche. Trek – Segafredo is still 6th just as before the Giro.
Trek – Segafredo:
Mads Pedersen is still the best placed rider from the team, but has fallen from 5th to 11th since before the Giro. Mollema also still 2nd best but fell from 16th to 24th. Nibali now 3rd in internal rankings moving up from 101st to 33rd.
The route from Brest to Landerneau is very undulated with new categorized and uncategorized climbs all the way and very few flat sectors. The stage will end on top of a 3.2 km hill climb, most likely eliminating all the heavier sprinters. Expecting to see a puncher or even a top climber take the win. Pedersen might survive the climbs and we will try to keep him near the front, otherwise we believe Giulio Ciccone has the best options.
Edward Theuns joins the morning breakaway with Ben Zwiehoff, Romain Combaud, Sander Armée and Stefan De Bod. Stefan De Bod takes the first KoM, Romain Combaud the intermediate sprint and Edward Theuns the 2nd KoM, whereafter the group is reeled back in, with more than 50 km to go.
The following climbs was taken by riders attacking from the pack, Mattias Skjelmose Jensen, Nicola Conci and Nans Peters took one each.
Besides the fact that Dimitri Claeys, Philippe Gilbert, Franck Bonnamour, Jonas Gregaard, Amund Grøndahl Jansen, Michael Schwarzmann, Danny Van Poppel and Luca Mozzato crashed, the peloton was almost intact, reaching the final climb. It looked like Wout Van Aert would take the win in front of Mads Pedersen, but in the last moment Tadej Pogacar outsprinted both for the victory. Van Aert did not see him coming and shamefully celebrated.
This was Slovenian National Champion Tadej Pogacar’s 10th season victory. Including the GC in Critérium du Dauphiné and Tour de Romandie. Despite missing out of the stage win Trek-Segafredo is happy with the start, getting a podium with two riders in top 10.
The route from Perros Guirec to Mûr de Bretagne Guerlédan is not as undulated as yesterday, but the last 20 km is harder, especially the final 2 km. Again we expecting to see a puncher/climber take the win.
Nicola Conci take part in the early breakaway with Qhubeka’s Mauro Schmid and Bahrain’s Chun Kai Feng. A little later the trio was joined by Arkéa’s Anthony Delaplace. Nicola won the intermediate sprint. Mauro Schmid the first KoM sprint, whereafter the group was reeled in.
Either everyone was watching Pogacar, expecting him to make the decisive move, or the leading trains burned out over the first passing of Mûr-de-Bretagne, in any case Trek – Segafredo’s train, headed by Vincenzo Nibali, was allowed to take the front and open a cap at the first part of the final ramp.
Nibali opened the sprint and Trek – Segafredo won the entire podium, Ciccone, Pedersen, Nibali. A situation you can hardly imagine happening in the TDF. This was Ciccone’s 7th professional victory, the first this season. Mads Pedersen takes yellow.
After two days with an uphill finish, the sprinters and their trains, will finally be released on a very flat stage. The stage departs in Lorient, racing through the department of Morbihan, before reaching the finish in Pontivy.
The morning breakaway was just two riders, Astana’s Jonas Gregaard and BORA’s Cesare Benedetti. Benedetti wins the point sprint, Gregaard the KoM.
With Mads Pedersen riding in Yellow, it is Trek – Segafredo’s responsibility to control the stage. It is mainly Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier, Koen De Kort and Mattias Skjelmose Jensen pulling the pack forward today. The breakaway was over with about 30 km left.
It comes to the expected mass sprint finish. Won by Bryan Coquard in front of Mads Pedersen and Sam Bennett. This was French national champion Bryan Coquard’s 14th victory of this season, the first on World Tour level.
It is the last day of the Grand Départ Bretagne. The entire stage from Redon to Fougères take place in the Ille-et-Vilaine region. The stage is almost pancake flat. It is short, intense and probably ending in a mass sprint.
After a hectic start, three riders got away, forming the breakaway of the stage. Arkéa’s Kévin Ledanois, BORA’s Michael Schwarzmann and Israel’s Alexander Cataford. With Mads Pedersen still dressed in the maillot jaune. It is again up to Trek – Segafredo, with Mattias Skjelmose, Nicola Conci and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier carrying most of the workload in the pack.
With the pack clearly visible in the rearview mirror, Kévin Ledanois takes both the intermediate sprint in Vitré and the only KoM climb, after which the break was immediately caught.
It comes to the inevitable mass sprint in Fougères. Won by Sam Bennett in front of Dylan Groenewegen and Caleb Ewan. Trek – Segafredo messed up the sprint, sitting to low in the pack and getting boxed trying to advance. This was Irish national champion Bennett’s 5th seasonal victory, including two world tour stages in Paris – Nice. Despite a disappointing day Mads Pedersen is still in yellow before the upcoming time trail.
The first of the tour's two ITT stages is races in the communes Laval and Changé, located next to each other on the banks of The Mayenne River in Pays de la Loire. Slightly shorter and a bit more undulated that the 2nd ITT.
Stefan De Bod was the first to set what might be a competitive time, but he was soon to be beaten by Victor Campenaerts with just 5 seconds. 35’43 was enough for Campenaerts to become the rider to beat, sitting in the hot seat for most of the day.
Mattias Skjelmose had a great ride, finishing 3rd only losing time to Stefan De Bod and Victor Campenaerts, +12”, at this point Edward Theuns at 2’30, Koen De Kort at 2’14, Nicola Conci at 1’43 and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier at 1’07.
35th in GC Tom Dumoulin, would become the first to beat Campenaerts with 35’17.
Remco Evenepoel +8, Jonas Vingegaard +9. Then Wout Van Aert 2” seconds faster than teammate Dumoulin, but it was not enough today, Tadej Pogacar won the stage with 35’07, 8 seconds faster than Van Aert. Mads would become the fastest from Trek, 13th at +48”, one second faster than Skjelmose. Nibali lost 51” to Tadej Pogacar, Giulio Ciccone 1’41”. This was Tadej Pogacar 2nd stage victory of the tour, 11th season win. Pogacar leads the GC with 12” to Van Aert and 20” to Tom Dumoulin. Best from Trek – Segafredo is still Mads Pedersen, 8th at 42”.
