Kinda of a rest day today in Switzerland with this flat stage between Wil and Biel. With 4 key stages coming up after today, GC riders will surely like a calm day, maybe even a breakaway win, in order to save efforts for tomorrow’s TT.
Maybe they aren’t that lucky, as we have a very windy day, and the first hour of racing was done at an incredible speed, as a rather big breakaway was a threat to the sprinters, and it took those teams around 70 kms to finally control the race.
After that, Bayly attacked was the lonely breakaway rider for today
This meant that in the two intermediate sprint, there were some points for the Points jersey available, though it’s quite likely that a climber will end up winning it
In the first one, Avelino beated Young, and in the second one it was Mansilla beating Stauff
Meanwhile, there was a Cat.3 climb around half-stage, and as expected Bayly was first, a couple of riders in the bunch went for the points, though none of them were Van Niekerk, the current KoM leader. Egger took the points ahead of Prado, thus becoming the new KoM leader after the stage
Can Bayly get a shocking win? As he enters the final 10 kms, his gap to the bunch is over 1’30. If he has saved energies for this final kms, he’s on a great position to take the win in Biel
Nothing in the bunch indicates that they can catch Bayly, who still has a gap of 1’15 when the bunch is going under the 5-km kit
The sprinters get ready to fight for the second place in the stage, as Bayly still holds that gap with 2 kms to go!
Strong tail-wind is Cameron Bayly new best friend, as the Aussie rider crosses the line and takes the win in Biel! You don’t see often a 1-men breakaway making it to the finish...
Second place for Mansilla, who beats Stauff in a very close sprint
Van Poppel gets fourth, ahead of Thwaites and Kemboi, while behind them come Kwok, Avelino and Vesely, who was never in contention for the sprint, and made up a lot of places in the final km
Great race so far for Bennelong, as Morton seems to still be in contention for the GC win (or podium at least) and now they get this unexpected stage win
Exported results didn't work in this stage. So i had to take screenshots of the results and the current standings
