Welcome back - but not to Switzerland, as today's stage will start in Vaduz, capital of the Principality of Liechtenstein! It's still the Tour de Suisse - stage number 6 - but it's a stage that starts and ends abroad, yet not in the same country. More on that later.
Liechtenstein is very closely linked to Switzerland. For example, the sixth smallest state on earth doesn't have its own currency, using the Swiss Franc instead. They speak pretty much the same language, and the closest highway connection is in Switzerland as well. Only the Rhine river separates the two states - but there obviously are several bridges crossing it. Only one of them is still built in wood, and it's one of the main sights of Vaduz. The other ones being the prince's castle, or the St. Florin cathedral.
But let's stay with the Rhine, as a lot of today's stage actually follows the river's course - upwards, and on Swiss territory. It's a typical valley, meaning mostly slightly ascending roads, until the intermediate sprint in Chur (46km), and a little further. But then the real difficulties start - the climb up to Flüela Pass (HC)! It's an irregular climb up to Davos, from where the officially categorized part starts, and a more regular yet steeper climb up to the summit.
After 128km, the second highest KoM sprint of this year's Tour de Suisse will be reached - but we'll still have almost 90km to go from there. After the descent to Susch, the peloton will follow the Inn river through the Lower Engadine. Which means that we also cover the 4th linguistic region of the country, as most people here speak Romansh.
Once arrived in Martinsbruck, the riders will tackle the category 2 climb Norbertshöhe - which after 178km also marks the transition to Austria! After a short downhill, we'll have the second intermediate sprint of the day in St. Christina with just 17km to go - this might be one for the GC riders, and given how tense the race still is, even those small bonus seconds could have an impact!
We'll then continue until Ried, from where the final climb up to Serfaus starts. And although the stage has a hilly rating, this one will be far too long for the pure puncheurs - instead, it's the final chance for the climbers to make the difference! Arrived on top, we'll however have a flat run-in to the finish, which in turn is the chance for the weaker climbers to still close some gaps.
Serfaus, together with Fiss and Ladis, is best known for its ski resort, reaching up to 2,800m above sea level. If you're rather into sightseeing - as it's not really the season to ski right now - there's a multitude of churches and chapels around, as well as a castle ruin. The earth pyramids are definitely impressive, too! And if you rather want to try out a really special means of transportation, you have to take the underground air cushion funicular!
But the riders definitely won't be allowed to make use of such devices - they'll be left with their legs and their bikes! And despite the hilly rating, the bookies don't see any chances for the pure puncheurs - it's the climbers with some punch that are on their favorites list. Kudus, Morton and Bernal top the list, followed by Barguil - with the best acceleration - Haig and Carthy. Choi, Pogacar, Roglic and the disappointing Berhane are the riders who are given outside chances. Let's find out who will indeed bring home the win!
What happened so far
We know it by now - sunny and cloudy, rainy days are alternating - so today the weather looks pretty nice again.
One of the duels of main interest should be Seibeb vs. Arashiro, as these two are looking most likely to take home the KoM shirt!
But the GC is at least as tense, given the small gaps between the Top 4! So let's hope for a lot of action out there!
Yes, you're right - Arashiro indeed made it to the breakaway of the day, even in the first wave! Januskevicius, Dulanjana, Sosnitskiy and Bevin were his companions.
But it didn't stop there, as later on Herrada, Cink, Goh and Benito also rode away from the peloton. Which didn't really bother to let them go.
They did however bother letting go even more riders - and after a long fight, only Phodingam was given some leeway as well. We saw mainly Dumoulin, O'Connor, Moser, Atkins and Antonijevic veto all further moves.
The ten escapees finally regrouped with 30 kilometers already covered - but no, they actually didn't. Phodingam came within a couple of seconds of the group, but then just ran out of gas. Teammate Bevin didn't bother dropping back and pulling him up front, and so the Thai was subsequently riding in no-man's-land for plenty, plenty of kilometers. Some questionable decisions by the team management for sure!
Among the nine remaining escapees, all but Arashiro and Januskevicius were decent climbers, with Sosnitskiy still being a level above the others - and even having a teammate up front, so the Ukrainian didn't even have to take turns. An example of good team strategy - nothing new from Gazelle, though.
Arashiro was the only one with KoM points - and given that he was just 11 points short of Seibeb's lead before the stage, a third place on top of Flüela Pass would be enough to virtually take the jersey!
At this point, the gap to the pack was 3'07" - given that Bevin was just 4'30" behind the race leader pre-stage, they clearly didn't fancy another scenario like on stage 3.
Arashiro was the only rider with a notable amount of points to his name, and so it wasn't surprising that he took full points at the first sprint point in Chur.
Sprint - Chur
1.
Arashiro
6 (24)
2.
Dulanjana
4 (4)
3.
Cink
2 (6)
Riding up the Rhine valley, the gap between the leaders and the pack was quite constant, with Phodingam dropping more and more behind. Here's one of those Rhine crossings - just because it looks good. And because we see the clouds that are shaping up...
The road got more and more bumpy, with sections having gradients of up to 13%, like this one. The road is so steep that there's actually a 1'30" gap ahead and behind of Phodingam, who was still trying to get up front - to no avail, as we said before.
And as the riders are now approaching Davos, and hence the start of the "real" climb to Flüela Pass, let's get some live pictures!
LIVE +++ LIVE +++ LIVE
The leaders have already left behind Davos, and have just arrived at Lake Davos. The road to the left leads to the Wolfgang Pass - which actually is just a couple of meters above Davos - but the riders had to take this one, the ascent of Flüela Pass!
It's a rather long climb with its 11.6km - add to that the many, many uphill kilometers already covered riding up the valley, and some riders will definitely start feeling some fatigue! Furthermore, the steepest slopes are found in the upper half of the climb - good luck to all!
The pack is quickly approaching Lake Davos as well, having reduced their deficit to just 2'21". And Phodingam's pointless adventure will finally come to an end, as he's right ahead of the pack!
We still have the same teams working, with Popo4Ever having joined Moser, Philips, Team UBS, Amaysim, cycleYorkshire and EA Vesuvio lately. Note that there's absolutely no sign of our GC leader's team!
No riders have been dropped before the "actual" start of the climb, meaning that the time limit shouldn't be an issue for anyone. Our typical candidates are now falling behind; the likes of Kittel, Viennet, Tanfield, Hamza and a couple of others.
I guess Seibeb will love this sight! With a little less than 5km to go until the top, Arashiro is dropped from the break, probably falling short of picking up enough points to take over the KoM jersey!
The peloton has been chasing really hard, and as a consequence the breakaway had to uppen their pace as well - which was just too much for the by far weakest climber of the group!
This probably means that whoever wants to take the KoM jersey from Seibeb's (virtual) shoulders needs to win both "intermediate" KoM sprints plus the stage - except if the GC riders are already launching some moves here!?!
OK, I guess Seibeb won't be celebrating too much after all, given that he's already dropped! And he doesn't even seem to try to stay with the pack, or to catch up again - and you know what? Just 200m ahead, Berhane is losing touch with the peloton as well, without even trying to keep up! What's up with those Project: Africa riders???
We'll probably never get an answer to that question, but what we see is that Kudus and Barguil seem to be cooking something! Especially Moser sets a horrendous pace in the pack now - will we see a long-range attack by the Eritrean?
As a consequence, the gap to the breakaway has dropped below 2 minutes now!
Bevin's acceleration in the leading group is now too much for Januskevicius - which could be expected as well. Cink, who did a lot of work so far, seems to be suffering as well! Still 3km to the top, who will take the points?
Bevin's move probably came too early, as he's now struggling to follow Goh's attack! Sosnitskiy is right there, just like Benito, but both Dulanjana and Bevin have to fight hard to keep up!
Herrada and Cink have been dropped in the meantime, while Januskevicius is almost back in the pack already.
In the end, Sosnitskiy easily comes around Goh, proving that he indeed is the strongest climber among the escapees. The Singaporean still holds onto 2nd, but pretty much everyone is on their own now - that climb was really tough!
The pack arrives roughly 2 minutes later, led by Bouchard. Let's take a look at the points:
KoM - Flüela Pass (HC)
1.
Sosnitskiy
20 (20)
2.
Goh
14 (14)
3.
Benito
12 (12)
4.
Dulanjana
10 (10)
5.
Bevin
8 (8)
6.
Herrada
6 (6)
7.
Cink
5 (5)
8.
Bouchard
4 (4)
9.
Buchmann
3 (5)
10.
Barguil
2 (2)
11.
Morton
1 (17)
Let's also take a look at the current timings:
Sosnitskiy
+ 33" (+ 33")
Goh
+ 22" (+ 55")
Benito
+ 21" (+ 1'16")
Dulanjana
Bevin
+ 32" (+ 1'48")
Herrada
Cink
+ 15" (+ 2'03")
Peloton
88 riders are still in the pack, with Seibeb and Berhane the most important ones not being there.
Now we're up to 90 riders, as Cink and Herrada are caught soon after the top. Sosnitskiy is still 28" ahead of the four others, who have regrouped on the downhill - but the peloton just trails by 1'26" and is getting closer and closer!
It actually looks like a training ride what Project: Africa are doing here, but definitely not like racing. Have they all dropped behind the pack to support Cisse? Will they drop even further to help Hamza - their only teammate not with them - to make the time limit?
All I know is they're throwing away a great (potential) GC result, and a good potential stage result, with Berhane being on today's favorite list. They'll definitely have to take some race strategy classes after this tour is over!
Someone else is dropped from the peloton as well - but not because of bad tactical choices, rather because of bad material, as Taaramäe punctures on the descent! With the pack travelling at full speed, having reduced their deficit to 58" now, it definitely won't be an easy task to re-join the peloton!
But well, a lot is possible if your teammates make smart strategic choices. Conci, Keinath and Soler all dropped back to help their leader - and they would bring him back to the pack within just a couple of kilometers. Well done - and hopefully not too much energy wasted!
The five remaining escapees regrouped on the downhill, and they're now tackling the Norbertshöhe! A short climb, yes - but with 9.1% average gradients despite the final 900m being pretty much flat still makes this one a beast!
The peloton is still 55" back, meaning they haven't really closed in lately.
Look at those gradients, that must hurt! Above 12% right now - and the breakaway riders definitely are suffering! The peloton, led by Oliveira, are only trailing by 38" now, and we still have 2.2km to go - with a bit more than one kilometer still having those slopes!
It would be an amazing view down to the valley for those riders, but I doubt they have time and energy to actually look down!
It's definitely game over for the breakaway now - let's see if Sosnitskiy at least has some energy left to pick up 10 more KoM points! Arashiro is in this group as well, but pretty much at the end of it, so it's unlikely he'll score any more points.
There's no sprint for KoM points, although some of the GC riders could have had a shot at the KoM jersey given that there are 16 more points available at the finish line. Seibeb will say thank you, as this means that he definitely wins the Tour de Suisse KoM jersey, congrats!
But the stage isn't over yet by any means - first things first, let's look at who took some points here:
KoM - Norbertshöhe (2nd)
1.
Williams
10 (10)
2.
Bernal
8 (15)
3.
Buchmann
6 (11)
4.
Geoghegan Hart
4 (16)
5.
Kudus
2 (2)
Some riders were struggling to keep up, but the only notable one to be dropped on this climb is Lunder (18th GC), who got his high GC position thanks to the stage 3 breakaway.
However, Philips set a very high pace in the descent with Xandri, Van Dijke and Henttala - and eventually some riders weren't attentive enough and were caught on the wrong side of a split! And it's the worst case scenario for Sauber, as Hirschi (12th GC) is in that group as well - a great downhiller actually, but apparently horribly positioned!
He still has four teammates up front, so they'll surely try to help him get back!
At least that's what you'd think - but they're just lurking at the end of the pack, without dropping behind! I guess Project: Africa will have some company for the strategy classes - the gap is already up to 1'05", and they could easily have brought Hirschi back had they reacted immediately!
Ironically, it's the other Swiss team that makes Hirschi's deficit go up - clearly they're setting up an attack by Barguil!?!
Sprint - St. Christina
1.
Reichenbach
6 (6)
2.
Xandri
4 (4)
3.
Buchmann
2 (9)
8km to the start of the final climb!
Noticing that the others in his group aren't really interested in a high pace, and given that none of his teammates has finally dropped back, Hirschi attacks in desperation, trying to somehow get back to the peloton! But his deficit is already 1'37" - he should have done that immediately!
The final climb is on! Xandri leads the pack on the first meters of the ascent, which is really tough until roughly 2.5km from the finish line, from where there are even some downhill meters!
Most top climbers are in the first 20 positions, but Pogacar and Smith seem to have messed up their positioning and will have to move up quickly!
We're in the steepest section now, with roughly 6km to go! Carthy is pulling hard, with Buchmann in 2nd position. Morton, Kudus, Barguil, Wirtgen, Geoghegan Hart, Powless and Almeida are all positioned well, with Bernal, Choi and Shikai slightly behind - just like the duo Roglic and Smith. Haig, Pluchkin, Pogacar and Keizer are in the same regions as well.
Fun fact: yesterday's stage winner Hennis is also in that 56 rider peloton! Hirschi isn't, but he's closing in and gaining some positions - you can actually spot him just around the corner, alongside the yellow car.
Attack! Kudus is the first one to try something, while Morton and Barguil are about to respond! Those who are out of position could really get into some troubles now!
At first, Barguil was able to hold Kudus' wheel - but the Eritrean just looks to be stronger! Morton hasn't really insisted, and now is with Bernal and Powless. Wirtgen, Geoghegan Hart and Choi are tryong to close the gap, followed by Almeida, Taaramäe and Haig!
Pogacar, Roglic, Shikai and Pluchkin are there as well, but are mainly following those ahead right now. Smith and Karnulin - 15th and 19th - aren't looking good, though!
4km to go, as Kudus still has those two bike lengths of advantage over Barguil, who's a great fighter!
Bernal and Morton are looking to leave Powless behind now, while Choi's attack looks to be shut down by Wirtgen!
Barguil has cracked with 3.5km left, and Kudus is now riding away! Remember that he has a 2'20" deficit to make up for - or 1'59" to Morton, who's riding away from both Bernal and Powless now!
The group behind still has 37 riders - including freaking Hennis, riding just ahead of Keizer!
Taaramäe has now caught Choi, who seems to have overextended himself. Pluchkin and Wirtgen are next, then Rikunov, Geoghegan Hart, Haig, Almeida, Shikai and Pogacar.
Carthy, Kirsch and Girdlestone are helpers and don't matter here - but Roglic is clearly struggling as well! Smith is even behind Keizer, with Karnulin and Lunke even further down.
Hirschi has just joined a group with Conci, a minute behind the pack of 37.
3km to the line, and just 500m of tough climbing left! Kudus clearly won't be able to create a big enough gap to take the GC lead, given how Morton looks to be controlling the race, but he'll definitely move up - and looks great to take the stage win!
Barguil is showing a good race as well, and if he can follow Morton who's about to overtake him, he should also gain some positions!
Bernal and Powless aren't really getting closer - on the contrary, it's Taaramäe leading the group closer to them!
Kudus has arrived on top, and he's still got a 15" gap over Morton and Barguil! It's mostly downhill and flat now, until the final couple of meters which are uphill again - can he pull through and get that win?
Taaramäe didn't have enough left to actually catch Bernal and Powless, and now it's Pluchkin pulling the group! The Moldovan had a bad day on stage 2, but looks to be redeeming himself today, pulling along teammate Rikunov!
Geoghegan Hart, Taaramäe and an impressive Pogacar - impressive due to his bad positioning at the start of the climb - are next, followed by Wirtgen, Almeida, Choi, Roglic, Haig, Shikai and Kirsch.
It's funny to see all those Swiss flags given that we're in Austria, but like this everyone should understand that it's the Tour de Suisse we're following - and Kudus is on the final 1,500m now! He's not the best downhiller, so that could be the chance for Barguil to close that 13" gap now!
Powless and Bernal are 40" behind the stage leader, while the yellow jersey group trails him by 1'02" already - he'll actually gain quite some time here!
Look at this! Haig is dropped from the group, what a bad surprise! And both Shikai and Choi who were looking so great are struggling as well - will we finally get a huge reshuffle of the GC Top 10?
By the way, a group including Smith, Karnulin and Keizer is only a couple of seconds behind Haig, so they're not doing such a bad job after all!
Hirschi in turn is now in a group with Lunke, so at least he's no longer the only Top 20 rider (besides Seibeb and Lunder) to be that far back.
Flamme Rouge for Kudus - and instead of losing his advantage, he has actually extended it! It's really looking good for the stage win now!
Barguil seems to be done, and Morton probably hasn't realized yet that he should try to squeeze out every possible second in the duel with Geoghegan Hart!
Bernal and Powless are now under the red kite as well, but it looks like the group behind will actually catch them in the end. Except for Choi and Shikai, who have definitely been dropped!
Up front, Kudus is looking pretty tired, while Morton has now launched his sprint! Only 400m to go for the Eritrean, can the Aussie close this gap?
He still has 200m to go, but Merhawi Kudus is sure that he'll win this stage - and he indeed does! He was the first one to attack, and in the end he just was the strongest! His team did a great amount of work today, and he gets them the best possible reward - congratulations!
Behind, Barguil still looks to have some energy left and draws level with Morton heading onto the final 100 meters - who will get 2nd place?
It is Lachlan Morton! After his win in Crans-Montana, he takes 2nd place today - meaning that he has to gain 9" over Geoghegan Hart to take over the leader's jersey!
Warren Barguil takes 3rd place, which is clearly better than four days ago, and somewhat justifies the work his team did.
The duo loses 15" to Kudus, who obviously is no danger at all to Morton in the GC.
Bernal is trying to salvage 4th place - and a gap over the yellow jersey group, while Powless really seems to be done.
Geoghegan Hart on the other hand is trying to close the gap - or at least to reduce it by enough to convince the timekeepers that there wasn't one!
Oops, that was a completely wrong assessment of the situation - in the end it's Neilson Powless who rides away from Egan Bernal to take 4th place! The Colombian barely holds onto 5th, which probably isn't what he was hoping for.
On the other hand, Tadej Pogacar again shows a great race, taking 6th place ahead of Tom Wirtgen, Rein Taaramäe and Tao Geoghegan Hart. The latter's work still pays off, though, as there indeed is no gap given between Powless and the other five - all six of them are listed 41" behind the stage winner, and 26" behind Morton. Which still means that we do have a new race leader!
Oh wow, in the end Primoz Roglic showed some amazing recovery skills, to not only catch up with some riders, but even leave them behind and come home with 10th place! He loses 1'08" and will definitely move up some spots!
The same clearly isn't true for Almeida, and even less so for Choi and Shikai. Pluchkin on the other hand won't be too unhappy with 11th place I guess.
Haig on the other hand will be very, very unhappy with 17th place, and especially with 1'57" lost today! What a horrible day for him - something really unexpected, given how Amaysim's season has been going so far!
Some other results of interest are Smith's 21st place, 2'28" behind the leader. He finished alongside Karnulin. Keizer was 26th, 2'51" down - and Hirschi moved up all the way to 29th, losing 3'16" - what could have been possible without that horrible positioning mistake! For example, Lunke finished 26" behind - just to say.
By the way, Hennis finished 30th. On this mountain stage, indeed.
And just to tell the end of the bizarre Project: Africa story - Berhane and Seibeb finally rode away from their teammates, together with Reguigui. Seibeb lost 18'27", his two teammates 16'02". Everyone easily finished within the time limit - no, we still have no explanation for what happened there.
We also still don't have an explanation why Merhawi Kudus was so bad on stage 2, but we know that he simply was the strongest today, finally living up to his reputation! Congratulations on a nice stage win here in Serfaus!
Lachlan Morton wasn't quite strong enough to keep up with his rival - but 2nd place still is a good result for him. Warren Barguil's 3rd place is probably the best he could expect behind those two super climbers - and he honestly didn't miss out on 2nd place by a lot!
After four days, we have a new GC leader! Lachlan Morton's 2nd place in combination with a 26" gap over Tao Geoghegan Hart was enough to make the yellow jersey switch shoulders, as the Australian now leads by 17"! This will surely be an extremely tense fight for the win tomorrow, and depending on daily form any of them could come out on top!
There's a much bigger gap to 3rd place now, as Joao Almeida - despite what we expected when he finished - didn't move down, but up! With today's time loss, however, he's now 1'23" off the lead - and he's a worse time triallist than those ahead of him.
On the contrary, he'll face some huge competition from behind, as within just 15" from 3rd place we have three more riders - Kudus, Bernal and Wirtgen. The latter three are separated by one second each - what a finale we will get here!
But it's not only for the GC that we expect a close fight - the green jersey race isn't quite decided, either. However, even though Lachlan Morton now leads by 2 points over Costa Seibeb, Tom Wirtgen in 3rd place is just 3 points behind, and clearly is the most likely winner of the points standings due to his TT prowess!
Unlike all other standings, the KoM classification is already done and dusted. Costa Seibeb's 41 points are enough to take home the pink Gruyère jersey, with Yudai Arashiro finishing 2nd and Lachlan Morton 3rd. Congratulations to Namibia!
Joao Almeida was able to hold onto the white jersey today - but only just. Egan Bernal is 14" behind, and it should be an easy task for him to close that gap. Tadej Pogacar is just 28" off as well, though - and on a great day, he could even start dreaming...
King Power are our new leaders in the team standings! In fact, former leaders Voyagin - Bird have dropped all the way down to 11th, and so the Thai now are 1'13" ahead of EA Vesuvio, with Cedevita 1'54" back. Tomorrow's 30km time trial could still reshuffle the Top 5 quite a lot, though!
So, we're done with the road stages of the 2022 Tour de Suisse now. Tomorrow, it's everyone on his own, head-to-head, no hiding, no bluffing. The decisive stage awaits us - we hope you'll tune in again tomorrow for what is bound to be a really tense race! See you!
Sorry for putting the results in a separate post. Unfortunately, the report was above the character limit per post. I usually try to shorten them to get everything in one post - but this time it's quite a bit above the limit, so I decided to go this way.
Tour de Suisse 
