Welcome back to Switzerland - for the first time this year not to Quinto, but to Montreux! From yesterday's arrival venue in Crans-Montana, the riders descended back to the Rhône valley, which they followed until the end in Villeneuve, where Lake Geneva starts - and even a bit further.
Montreux is THE city on the Riviera, attracting lots of tourists every year. Music plays an important role in Montreux. The Montreux Jazz Festival was first held in 1967 and has quickly become a global phenomenon. It was originally held in the Montreux Casino, which burned down in 1971 during Frank Zappa's show - an incident that inspired Deep Purple to write one of their greatest hits, "Smoke on the Water".
Queen even had a recording studio in Montreux, and Freddie Mercury was living there during his last couple of years - the reason for the Freddie Mercury Memorial by the shores of Lake Geneva.
But well, enough of that stuff, let's find out who plays first fiddle today! The stage isn't the hardest one for sure, but there still are a couple of challenges for the riders. The course leads them uphill right from the start, to Châtel-Saint-Denis, from where it's a rollercoaster parcours for about half of this 201.2km long stage. There will be a category 3 KoM sprint in Fribourg, after 62km - a short but pretty steep paved hill, the Chemin de Lorette.
From there, the riders continue their bumpy path, and they will soon reach the canton of Bern, where they stay for the rest of the day. The roads get much easier once they reach Lake Thun in Spiez, continuing to Interlaken (meaning "between the lakes") and continuing alongside Lake Brienz until Brienz, where we have the first intermediate sprint after 151km. They will reach Meiringen shortly after for the first time, but they'll have to continue to Innertkirchen for the second sprint point, taking a 4th category hill named "Grimselstrasse" on the way.
Innertkirchen marks the start of today's main obstacle, the climb up to Hasliberg, which is rated category 1. The downhill to the finish line then is split up into two parts, as the riders will have to climb up to Brünig Pass after the first few descending kilomters. This will probably be the last chance to attack, as the rest of the stage is just downhill to Meiringen.
Meiringen is an alpine village, meaning the main sights are not - or not only - human-built, but natural. The Aare Gorge is definitely impressive to view, as are the Reichenbach Falls. And it's actually the Grand Reichenbach Fall that gives Meiringen an international touch - in "The Final Problem", it is the place where Sherlock Holmes vanquished Professor Moriarty. According to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, both ended up falling down, but only Holmes survived. Subsequently, a Sherlock Holmes museum was created in Meiringen, and Holmes' statue is easily recognizable by anyone taking a walk through the village.
But now, let's play detectives ourselves and find out who is the strongest today! The evidence found by the bookies show that yesterday's winner Morton should again be among the strongest - alongside the so far disappointing Kudus. Bernal also gets three stars in this secret document. Next are Barguil, Berhane and Carthy, and we can distinguish the names of Haig, Kirsch, Choi and Pogacar at the bottom of the list. Let's see who will be the first in Meiringen - without falling down the Reichenbach Falls though, please!
What happened so far
The "Gold Coast" of Lake Geneva today just refers to reputation and money, as the sun decided to hide almost all day long. Instead, it's rainy - given that today's stage ends with a pretty long and curvy descent, let's hope everyone arrives safe in Meiringen!
It didn't take long at all to get our breakaway of the day. Two attacks, and all was said and done.
You will easily recognize KoM leader Seibeb, who was part of the first move, as he followed Lunder's attack. The second one to try was Tediashvili, and he took Arashiro with him. That's it.
Obviously, this looks like a fantastic opportunity for Seibeb. He's by far the strongest climber, and with Arashiro we have an absolute powerhouse on the flat in this group. The only downside for the Namibian is that he's the worst descender in the group, so he definitely has to make the difference on the climbs. But even if the group shouldn't fight for line honours, it's still a good chance to pick up some more KoM points.
Tediashvili should be "best of the rest" in terms of climbing, while Lunder and Arashiro really don't like the uphills, and one might wonder why the chose this stage for a breakaway attempt.
Seibeb is best in the GC, but even he is 10'29" back in 111th position. Lunder is just 3 seconds behind him, by the way. None of them is a real threat to Geoghegan Hart's race lead, which definitely increases their chances of success.
There was one more half-hearted attempt, but Antonijevic firmly shut down that move. He was setting the pace early on, mainly sharing the workload with Sam.
We said that Chemin de Lorette was a paved climb, but the city of Fribourg apparently just replaced the iconic cobbles by some boring tarmac for this race. Furthermore, the KoM sprint was placed way after the steep sections, and so we had more of a flat sprint than a KoM sprint. It definitely doesn't arrive often that Arashiro is first on a KoM point...
KoM - Chemin de Lorette (3rd)
1.
Arashiro
6 (6)
2.
Lunder
4 (4)
3.
Seibeb
2 (22)
The pack, led by Sam, was already 6'24" down at this point. 133km to go, though, including a category 1 climb.
However, by the time the escapees arrived by the shores of Lake Thun, their advantage had almost reached 10 minutes! With only 80km to go, the peloton definitely didn't have much more time to lose if they wanted to see them again before the finish line!
But the peloton was still cruising rather than riding hard. Moving past the Simmenfluh (the big rock in the background), nobody seemed to be worried - and no team wanted to take full responsibility for catching the breakaway.
A lot of teams shared the leading position (because we can't label what they're doing an actual "workload") - here we had Zukowsky, Schreurs, Gayral, Moser, Antonijevic, Sibilla, Dumoulin, Zhao, Verona and Quaade taking some turns.
As the breakaway reached Interlaken, the gap had gone up to 10'20" - just 9 more seconds for Seibeb to take over the virtual GC lead! While this obviously won't happen for real, it still means that with a more than 90% chance, the stage win should go to this foursome with only 70km to ride.
Let's find out if they can really get through, as we're jumping into today's live coverage!
LIVE +++ LIVE +++ LIVE
Brienz and hence the end of the ride alongside Lake Brienz is in sight, as we have just 5km left to the first intermediate sprint of the day. The escapees have just a bit over 50km left to ride, and their advantage is up to 11'23" now - it's definitely clear that one of these four will add a Tour de Suisse stage win to his palmarès tonight!
But first, the first three riders in Brienz add some points to their tally:
Sprint - Brienz
1.
Tediashvili
6 (6)
2.
Seibeb
4 (14)
3.
Arashiro
2 (2)
Seibeb moves up to shared 7th place in the points standings, as he already scored 10 points in yesterday's breakaway. None of his companions had any points previously.
The peloton still doesn't really bother. Their deficit is now 12'12", meaning that Seibeb and Lunder are more than 1'30" ahead in the virtual GC - with that category 1 climb still lurking around the corner, though.
Arashiro is the first to cross the finish line - with 37km to go, though. He'll need some really big miracle - or everyone looking at each other for the entire climb - to repeat that. 12'24", the gap is still going up!
Just like on the first climb of the day, Tediashvili is pulling with 1km to go. He was outsprinted by everyone in Fribourg - can he do better on this 4th category hill?
He can! No attacks, pretty flat roads - and so the order is exactly the same as 1km earlier.
KoM - Grimselstrasse (4th)
1.
Tediashvili
5 (5)
2.
Seibeb
3 (25)
3.
Arashiro
1 (7)
And given that it was just 2km downhill from the KoM to the second intermediate sprint, the order among this foursome still hasn't changed. And is the same as we had at the first intermediate sprint already.
Sprint - Innertkirchen
1.
Tediashvili
6 (12)
2.
Seibeb
4 (18)
3.
Arashiro
2 (4)
Seibebis now 5th in the points standings and actually has a great opportunity to add the sprint jersey to the KoM jersey he'll very likely defend! However, Tediashvili could theoretically get the ladybug jersey as well.
As soon as the climb to Hasliberg starts, Seibeb moves to the front. It's no attack yet, maybe he just wants to tire out his companions. It would be pretty surprising if anyone was still with him at the top!
Half of the climb is done, and the riders' order in the breakaway now corresponds to their climbing prowess. The pace isn't overly high, though, and so even Arashiro can keep up without showing any signs of fatigue.
But despite the speed being rather low, the advantage over the pack is still 12'35"! We said a while ago that Seibeb surely won't take over the GC leader jersey today - but the pack actually still needs to gain back more than two minutes to prevent him from doing so!
The peloton has now started the climb as well - and it looks like Voyagin don't really fancy Arashiro's chances up front, as they're upping the pace! Clearly Shikai must be preparing a move?
His teammates were right thinking that Arashiro probably won't win the stage, as he's dropped with 4km to climb. Still no attacks, but a steady, relatively high pace, even on the steeper sections, was finally too much for the Japanese.
The Voyagin boys are gone from the front row, instead we now have a strong King Power presence! Besides Roglic and Smith, we also have Barguil in the first positions, while Haig and Bernal both are near as well, both with a domestique right in front of them.
Seibeb is now going out of the saddle, and that acceleration was too much for Lunder! But with just 1.6km left to climb, maybe he can close the gap on the downhill if he doesn't lose too much time now!
One kilometer later, it's too much for Tediashvili as well! Seibeb as expected has dropped all his companions - but the Namibian better puts some more seconds into the Georgian, given his poor dowhnill skills!
Seibeb reaches the top of the Hasliberg climb solo, as we supposed he would. Let's see how big of a gap he managed to create on those final meters of the climb!
Tediashvili can still see him, but he's already 44" back. With just 18 mostly descending kilomters to go, that looks like a huge task for the youngster!
It's already 1'44" for Lunder, so probably no stage win for him. But a stage podium is definitely possible - even more so given that he's the strongest downhiller among the escapees!
And we have to wait yet another minute for Arashiro to arrive on top. Probably no stage podium for him, but 4th place is definitely locked up, with the pack still trailing Seibeb by over 10 minutes!
When speaking of the pack, not much has changed there. Ho and Phodingam are still working for Smith and Roglic, while Buchmann has moved up to help Barguil. No moves yet, and no notable riders dropped - and they only have 3 more kilometers to climb!
Another kilomter later, Bernal finally launches the fight among the GC contenders! Rikunov is trying to respond, let's see if that's enough!
Bernal is still slightly ahead of the peloton, but he doesn't look to be able to open a significant gap. The climb just isn't hard enough for this probably. Which is underlined by the fact that we still have 79 riders in the main group with 1km left to climb.
Seibeb arrives at the foot of the final short climb today, as his advantage over Tediashvili has slightly shrunk from 44" to 40". Still nothing to worry about, though - if he still has the legs to push hard on the next couple of meters!
Lunder is right around the bend, but we can't see him from here - but we can spot Arashiro higher up on the descent. Given his camouflage outfit, he's not easy to recognize, though...
Roglic has finally closed the gap to Bernal - but not only that, the Slovenian actually attacks on his own now! Can he get away on the final 500m of the climb?
Kind of. There's a gap, but it definitely isn't significant. He still picks up some KoM points - as does Bernal. Here are the full points:
KoM - Hasliberg (1st)
1.
Seibeb
16 (41)
2.
Tediashvili
12 (17)
3.
Lunder
10 (14)
4.
Arashiro
8 (15)
5.
Roglic
6 (6)
6.
Bernal
4 (7)
7.
Buchmann
2 (2)
Seibeb now has a commanding lead, as he's 24 points ahead of Tediashvili. Getting most points two days in a row is a great achievement - and only stage 6 could realistically keep him from taking the jersey home!
By the way, the attacks from the peloton have led to their deficit going below the 10 minutes mark, meaning that Geoghegan Hart is back in the virtual lead.
Seibeb is on the very last uphill meters of the day, and he can see his two closest rivals! He probably sees that he should have done enough to win the stage, as Tediashvili hasn't been able to get any closer. Nor has Lunder.
The peloton still consists of 62 riders - but one big name isn't there anymore: Berhane must be on a horrible day, as he couldn't even keep up in that big group!
No other top climbers are struggling today, so there probably won't be a lot of movement in the Top10 or even the Top20.
The final slightly flat section is done for Seibeb, now it's really just downhill until the Flamme Rouge! He clearly still has something in the tank, as Tediashvili is now almost a minute back - Aidan, get some champagne out of the coolbox!
Further behind, Roglic actually still has a gap, which Bernal doesn't seem to be able to close! Barguil is the fastest downhiller around, so maybe he'll have to take over from the Colombian!
The fast pace on the downhill actually has done some damage to the peloton, which is splitting up! Roglic is still up front, then we have a group of 32 riders with all the big names - except for Berhane of course.
And except for Powless, who is in the next group - as currently 10th placed in GC, he's the highest ranked rider to be dropped! Rachid (16th) is with him as well.
The yellow jersey group is now about to tackle the final short hill as well - does everyone still have the legs to keep up?
The answer is no! Shikai and Choi, 8th and 4th in the GC, are dropped over this bump! And in the group right ahead of them, we have Keizer and Smith as the biggest names! They'll have to descend really fast now if they don't want to lose any time today!
Borisavljevic is right behind them, and Powless is already another minute back now!
Meanwhile, Seibeb is on the final 5 kilometers - and he can already see the Flamme Rouge and even the finish line from here! He's now 1'04" ahead of Tediashvili - this stage must be his!
With 10km to go, Roglic is still ahead of the pack, but now Barguil has decided that it's time to bring the Slovenian back! Or will he even try to get a gap himself?
By the way, let's just try to get an overview of the riders still present in this group:
Barguil
Bernal
Geoghegan Hart
Kudus
Haig
Morton
Buchmann
Karnulin
Pluchkin
Hirschi
Crncevic
Pogacar
Almeida
Wirtgen
Lunke
Taaramäe
Ho
Frankiny
Carthy
Kirsch
Canty
Rikunov
Last kilometer for Seibeb! He'll definitely bring that win home - but what we haven't been tracking anymore lately is his gap to the peloton! It's difficult to say because of all those moves, but the GPS measurments say it's still about 9 minutes - the Namibian could actually even make a jump into the Top 10!
Barguil has easily caught Roglic, but he doesn't really look to be interested to push on. Which is a shame, given that he's a better downhiller than most others - and he definitely should seize every opportunity to gain back some time!
On the other hand, it's understandable that no rider wants to take a lot of risk on those wet and slippery roads...
Costa Seibeb won't care much about what those behind him are doing - he is celebrating a fantastic stage win today in Meiringen! He joined the breakaway for the second day in a row, and was lucky that no other decent climber was interested today - and then he just was the strongest on today's biggest and decisive obstacle! Congratulations to Namibia and Project: Africa!
Giorgi Tediashvili surely did a great job as well, but he just was no match for Seibeb on that final climb. Still, 2nd place is a great reward for his efforts and a nice result anyway!
In the end, the Georgian loses 50", so he was faster than the stage winner on the twisty part of the descent.
Eirik Lunder takes the last podium spot, 1'53" back. He was clearly the 3rd strongest of the breakaway today - not much that he can do about this, but certainly a good result for him as well!
It's a great result as well for Yudai Arashiro - maybe even the best result of his entire career on a mountain stage! He had no chance against the others - and he probably knew it early on. Still, with his engine he contributed big time to the huge gap they got on the pack - which finally also allowed him to easily stay clear, even if it was "just" for 4th place.
And we've got some news from the peloton! Once Barguil and Roglic were caught, the group slowed down, with nobody willing to push on the downhill! Which in turn allowed Choi and Shikai to come back! It's definitely a missed opportunity for some others to gain two spots in the GC - but if you don't work, you don't make big gains.
So the only Top10 rider missing in this group is Powless, who's still a minute back.
And that group isn't able to make the catch, so it's a 32 rider peloton fighting for 5th place on the stage. And looking at the clock, we see that it's already 9 minutes since Seibeb crossed the line, so he'll definitely make a huge leap in the GC!
Warren Barguil wins the sprint of this group - and he might ask what would have been if he had attacked on the downhill... He didn't, and so it's "just" 5th place, withouth any bonus seconds or other gaps.
The remaining Top10 spots go to Brendan Canty, Joao Almeida, Marc Hirschi, Emanuel Buchmann and Kilian Frankiny.
The clock for this group stopped at 9'47" - including bonus seconds underway and at the finish, this means that Seibeb gained 10'15" - he was 10'29" back, so the Namibian finally comes just 14" short of the race lead! Madness!
One of the big losers today is Powless, who finishes 42" behind the peloton and drops from 10th to 16th. Still a decent result, but those 40" will probably hurt him in the end...
By the way, former 16th placed Rachid finished in this group as well - and so did Berhane. But the latter will probably get over it, given that his teammate won the stage and jumped up the GC ranks!
And here he is - Costa Seibeb! What a day for him, what a win! The breakaway was just perfect for him, without any serious climbing opposition - and then he just played it well and got a fantastic solo win! Congratulations!
Giorgi Tediashvili also did a good job, and got the current maximum out of it. So did Eirik Lunder - no climber by any means, but he gave the others a brave fight and was rewarded with a stage podium! Which consist of 100% PCT riders today, by the way.
Our GC leader is no PCT rider - however, Tao Geoghegan Hart only saved a 14" advantage over Costa Seibeb! Despite the GC favorites not seriously attacking today, we still had a major change in the Top10, with our stage winner almost taking over the race lead!
Lachlan Morton drops one spot to 3rd, still 21" back. GC-wise, it was a dull stage - as expected - but it still was surprising that none of those losing time yesterday even seriously tried today. One more chance left for the climbers on stage 6!
Costa Seibeb is back on the podium, as with the points from yesterday's breakaway, plus points from both sprints today, plus the points for the stage win, he's our new points leader! The Namibian now stands at 43 points, which is 10 more than Tom Wirtgen, and 11 more than Giorgi Tediashvili, who scored all his 32 points today.
Absolutely nothing is decided yet in this classification - let's see if even a sprinter can get into the mix with two flat stages yet to be raced!
All good things come in threes, and so Costa Seibeb gets the cheers yet another time! He already took the KoM jersey yesterday, and he now has a firm grip on this classification. He has already scored 41 points - which is 24 more than Giorgi Tediashvili. Lachlan Morton stays with 16 points, and drops one spot to 3rd.
Not much changed in the U25 competition - at least not on the first 4 spots. Joao Almeida still leads 55" ahead of Egan Bernal, while Tadej Pogacar is 1'09" back. Hirschi is the only other rider within 2 minutes from the lead.
That's all from today's memorable stage. We saw a great ride by Seibeb, which was almost rewarded with the GC lead given that the top climbers were pretty unwilling to do some real work. Let's see if the breakaway gets another chance on tomorrow's flat stage 4 - stay tuned!
Tour de Suisse 
