After a long ride from west to east yesterday, the peloton moves back west through the Swiss Plateau towards Fribourg. It’s a tough first half of the stage with four 2nd category climbs in the first 80 kilometers, but the second half will be significantly easier. We could be in for another sprint from a reduced group, or even a larger peloton, depending on how the puncheurs and climbers decide to play this. There are also 55 mountain points to collect, which could well mean the end of what would then be a brief spell for Cosnefroy in the mountain jersey.
For the second day in a row, Moser open proceedings and it’s back to Boros, who wants another shot at the KoM jersey. No immediate reaction by anyone else.
Dunne, Frison, Salazar and Hansen catch up to him a few kilometers later, though the cycleYorkshire rider is immediately in trouble. Irishman Dunne is easily the best climber here and leads the way towards the summit of the Côte d’Holderchappeli.
And he takes 10 points ahead of Salazar and Boros, who now has 14 points in total. The peloton trails Dunne by just over 2 minutes.
The group briefly reunited on the downhill, but at the summit of the Rengg climb, which the riders had tackled from a different side yesterday, it’s only Salazar who manages to stay with Dunne. 20 points now for the Glanbia rider, 4 more to take the provisional lead in the mountain classification. With 30 kilometers to go to the next mountain sprint and 3 minutes on the peloton, it’s not guaranteed he’ll get there, but it does seem likely.
The gap is at 3’30 at the foot of the 12 kilometer long climb of the Glaubenbühlpass, helped by the fact that Hansen recovered nicely to catch up and contribute on the flat. The first 10 kilometers of this climb are pretty tame, but the final two are incredibly tough.
The Dane therefore manages to hang on even until the final kilometer of the climb. Salazar accelerates first, he too has a shot at the mountain jersey if he manages to get the better of Dunne.
Alas, he doesn’t really stand a chance. Still, Salazar is now second in the provisional rankings with 24 points, 6 behind Dunne’s 30. Boros and Frison are caught by the peloton, which crosses the summit around 3’45 later …
… but only after Laas attacks to take 4 points. He’s at 12 points now, perhaps preparing for a breakaway attempt later on one of the next stages.
The peloton takes it easy on the descent and the following kilometers, letting the gap of the leading trio grow to over 5 minutes. And due to a very impressive effort by Hansen, it indeed remains a trio even through the fourth classified climb, the Brunigpass, where Dunne wins the fourth consecutive mountain sprint ( Laas attacked again to take another 4 points). They have some 60 almost entirely flat kilometers ahead of them now.
We can skip past those, including the intermediate sprint which the trio smartly did not contest. They enter the Côte de Lager with 1’45 on the peloton, which should be enough to get to the summit, but unlikely to carry them to the finish. The peloton is almost entirely whole, which means that the sprinters have a pretty real shot at competing for the stage win.
You know what to expect from mountain sprints at this point, Dunne increases his points total to 50 while Salazar is at 40 points now. Hansen imploded on the final kilometer, giving Laas the opportunity to collect 6 points this time. He’s 4th behind Hansen (35) with 22 points now.
With 25 kilometers to go and the leaders just a minute ahead of the peloton, we have the first attack there. Mosca is not the most threatening rider, but Puma, ZARA – Irizar and Zwift don’t want to give him much of a gap either.
Mosca joins Dunne and Salazar, but it doesn’t look too promising for them. With 20 kilometers to go, the next attack comes from Velasco, Burke and Laas.
Velasco and Laas take the lead of the race, then Bagioli and Schmid try to get away and join them.
Only Schmid manages to do so and the three riders have 25 seconds on the peloton as they climb the Côte d’Abnet.
With a quick acceleration, Valter and Gebrezgabihier bridge the gap. This alarms the peloton and Zwiehoff jumps out of the saddle in an effort to close that gap quickly.
And he does so fairly easily. Laas times his acceleration nicely to collect another 5 points, while Valter collects 3 and now has 24 in total. 150 riders are still in the peloton for the final 13 kilometers, most of which are downhill, but the finishing straight has a slight uphill gradient.
Laas is actually going for more than just KoM points there, he extends his attack and is joined once again by Schmid. They get a 20 second gap, but Zwiehoff again chases furiously. This effort is for Madouas, since Kanter has been dropped from the peloton a while ago, which seems like a bold move by Puma given that many of the top sprinters are already in the first 20 or so positions of the peloton ( Steimle is still here but among the riders working at the front).
10 kilometers to go and Valter makes another attempt, this time with Borges and Zegklis in his wheel. They don’t gain any ground though. Up front, Schmid has left Laas behind.
Laas gives it his all but Zwiehoff is unrelenting. Schmid remains ahead by just 10 or so seconds. All this commotion does seem to take a toll on the sprinters, though, with only yellow jersey Kennaugh and Silva remaining near the front. Kalaba is the next best sprinter, a few rows behind. 6 kilometers to go.
Zwiehoff finally runs out of gas, so when the next attack is launched, Madouas simply counters it himself. He follows Chaves, Valter, Bagioli, Borges, Moscon and Gebrezgabihier.
Guerreiro also just about manages to catch up and Schmid seems to have enough left in the tank to keep up, so we have a group of 9 with 25 seconds on the peloton, where Bilbao is trying to close the gap. 3 kilometers to go, 2 of which go downhill and then the final kilometer rises at just over 2%.
However, the group is unwilling to work together, no one takes responsibility and they blunder this good position before they even get to the flamme rouge. Romo is the first rider in the peloton as they catch up.
Kennaugh and Silva are still in a decent position. Thijssen, Howard, Steimle and Nur Hasan have also managed to get closer to the front, but they still have some ways to go. At the head of the race, Bagioli is the first to launch his sprint.
Borges and Valter are closest to Bagioli, then Schmid and Madouas, while Guerreiro seems to have an issue with his shoe!
But he solves it and is still in contention with 500 meters to go. Bagioli holds on to the lead, Madouas is making up some ground. It’s between these puncheurs, the sprinters are simply too far behind.
Madouas gets closer and closer, trying to go between Bagioli and Borges. Can he reward all of his team’s efforts?
Yes he can! His strong sprint gives Valentin Madouas the stage win! In a photo finish, Borges narrowly beats Bagioli to take second place. Valter follows up yesterday’s third place with a fourth today, ahead of Schmid and Guerreiro.
Moscon, Robov, Thijssen and Gebrezgabihier complete the Top 10. The Belgian was very fast in the final kilometer but came from too far behind to convert it to something tangible.
Kennaugh ultimately lacked the energy to do anything but cross the finish line within the peloton, but that means he remains in yellow by four seconds for another day, once again thanks to the bonus seconds from yesterday’s intermediate sprint.
However, he loses the lead in the points classification, which goes to Madouas. Bagioli draws level on time with Valter and Thijssen in the U25 classification, but the latter retains the lead on aggregate finishing positions. And with another sprint stage tomorrow, that is unlikely to change, too.
Tour de Suisse 
