In the ski resort of Sölden, where the competitive alpine skiing is traditionally opened every year, we also open the fight for the overall victory in this year’s Tour de Suisse. Given that significant time gaps will likely be harder to come by in the concluding stage 7, today is the most important day for those GC contenders who can’t rely on their time trialing to make a (positive) difference.
The breakaway was hotly contested today. Riders from basically every team without a top GC contender tried their best and there were multiple times in the early parts of the stage where between 16 and 18 riders where ahead of the peloton at once. But Amaysim and Polar, as expected the most active teams at the front of the pack, were keen to not let too big of a group go free.
Ultimately, the very first seven attackers, who worked well together and never let anyone catch up, were the ones to form the break of the day: Kolar, Louvel, Januskevicius, Burke, Schmid, Valter and Kaloniatis form an illustrious and certainly capable group.
A trio of Williams, Van Gils and Seibeb managed to get away from the peloton, but unfortunately never got closer than 25 seconds to the leaders and would spend the next kilometers between the groups before being caught.
Schmid comfortably wins the first intermediate sprint ahead of Januskevicius and Louvel.
With 14 mountain points to his name, the Evonik rider is one of two riders in this breakaway who hypothetically could take the lead in the mountain classification. While he would need to win both the HC climb and the stage – very unlikely, with all due respect –, Valter (starting with 24 points) could finish 2nd and 3rd, or 1st and 5th to take it. As one of the three strongest climbers of this group alongside Burke and Kolar, that’s not impossible - if the breakaway makes it to the finish line, of course.
The climb up the Bielerhöhe is long, but only the first half is really steep. No matter how steep or easy the road, and in marked contrast to the first kilometers of the stage, the breakaway couldn’t find a way to work together and their pace remained low. This had two consequences: One, even a weak climber like Louvel was able to stay with the group without any problems, and two, Amaysim and Polar didn’t have to work very hard to keep the gap under four minutes. Kaloniatis attacks first for the mountain points.
Schmid is once again the quickest and takes 20 points. It’s 10 and 8 points for Januskevicius and Valter, respectively, behind Kaloniatis.
In the peloton, the Top 4 of the KoM classification attack for the remaining points. Salazar takes 4, while KoM leader Dunne only gets 1, reducing the gap between the two to 7 points, 51 to 44. Hansen and Laas increase their totals to 38 and 29, respectively. They’re well set-up for a showdown on the final stage.
The cooperation in the breakaway doesn’t get better on the way to the final climb and with still more than 40 kilometers to go, their lead is already down to less than one and a half minutes. Valter doesn’t want to give up on this yet, he attacks. While most of the group can counter, first Louvel and Kolar, and then a few attacks later Kaloniatis, are dropped.
But the other four don’t even make it to the second intermediate sprint, either. The peloton is still 166 riders strong, including almost all top sprinters, who can now compete for some perhaps unexpectedly available sprint points.
Nur Hasan wins it ahead of Rodenberg and Kennaugh. While it looks like only they really went for it, other sprinters like Page, Afewerki and Kanter were making their way to the front but were ultimately boxed in and couldn’t really get going.
You don’t see this very often: The yellow jersey in the wind, working at the head of the peloton! A nice gesture from Kennaugh, who obviously knows his time in yellow is over today, and he’ll certainly hope that he can pass it on to teammate Haig. Over the past few kilometers, Colombini have also become more involved, showing their ambitions for Reis.
The Rettenbachferner climb is about to start and it’s a brutal one. 12 kilometers at an average of 9.9% with gradients of up to 14%. Whoever wins today, he’ll have earned it.
Interestingly, through the first few hairpins, it’s the Minions at the front of the peloton. Cattaneo must have a good day, but he’s not quite in position yet to counter the first big attack: Perhaps inspired by seeing his name painted on the road, Oomen accelerates with 10 kilometers still to go! And immediately, Haig himself goes after him!
The two get a gap, but here we see the power of this Polar team: None other than Giro winner Shikai leads the pursuit, keeping the attackers on a short leash and putting a strain on the rest of the peloton.
With 7 kilometers to go, Shikai makes the catch but Haig isn’t done yet and he goes again. No big gaps in the peloton yet, but it’s only a matter of time.
Haig is really trying, but Shikai can go all out and brings him back another 2 kilometers later. The peloton stretches further and further, with most main contenders near the front, but some GC hopefuls are struggling:
Johannessen is some ways down at the bottom of the screen, riding near domestiques like Habtemichael and Kuss. ( Madouas is the Puma rider closest to the front). Powless and Sicard are slightly further down the road.
Even further behind, Foss is in a really bad position next to Pronskiy and Lasinis. But they’re still ahead of Conci, who’s already been dropped from this group of still around 60, and so has Williams.
As Shikai swings out to the side of the road, his work completed, the next attack comes from Geoghegan Hart. Now, of course, Bernal reacts himself, as do most of the top favorites.
Most, but not all! A group of 9 breaks free, including the aforementioned as well as Haig, Oomen, McNulty, Reis, Cattaneo, Madrazo and Stüssi.
The most notable absence is Almeida, who’s now chasing alongside Kirsch at the front of what remains of the peloton. Shikai, miraculously, has the energy to try and join the leaders by himself.
Despite Almeida’s best efforts, the peloton trails the leaders by 1’45 by the time they reach the final 3 kilometers. Madrazo is the first of the 9 to crack, but Cattaneo and Stüssi look shaky as well.
Cattaneo indeed has to let go soon after, but Stüssi holds on for a bit longer. With 2.5 kilometers to go, he finally has to relent and drops alongside Geoghegan Hart. Five riders remain ahead. And the time gaps quickly begin to grow, with Madrazo for instance already one and a half minutes behind the leaders, the Almeida group two and a half minutes.
Haig has been the driving force of this group for the past kilometer and the gap to Stüssi and Geoghegan Hart grows to a minute as the leaders approach the flamme rouge. Bernal still looks easy on the bike, the other three are visibly struggling.
With 800 meters to go, Haig accelerates! He might need a bit of time on Bernal, who’s the slightly better time trialist on paper, and he gives it all he’s got. The Colombian counters but has some ground to make up.
As expected, none of Oomen, Reis or McNulty can keep up. Haig remains in the lead with 600 meters to go.
But it’s going to be tight! Bernal closes the gap and Haig is back in the saddle.
But soon, so is Bernal. He would need one more acceleration to take the stage.
But he doesn’t have it in him. Jack Haig wins the 5th stage of the Tour de Suisse and takes over the lead in the general classification! Bernal limits his losses to only the 8 bonus seconds, he’ll have a chance to take over yellow in the time trial tomorrow but it’s far from guaranteed.
Reis and McNulty are the stronger time trialists, so these bonus seconds for 3rd place could be crucial for Oomen in the fight for the podium. The three cross the line 39 seconds behind the two leaders.
Geoghegan Hart and Stüssi finish 6th and 7th another 51 seconds later, followed by Cattaneo (+ 1’58), Shikai (+ 2’06) and Madrazo (+ 2’13).
Kirsch tries his best to limit his losses, he finishes 11th ahead of Almeida, but they lose 3 minutes flat. Foss, Powless and Sicard are all in this group, too. Johannessen and Rachid are in the next group 31 seconds down.
Flanked by Borges and Soler, Conci reaches the finish line more than 9 minutes behind today’s winner. He might be the biggest disappointment today and will now focus his attention on a strong result in the ITT tomorrow, without any GC hopes.
Two more stages remain, both with major GC implications. Tomorrow, we'll start with the time trial.
Tour de Suisse 
