Flumserberg, 20th June 2019 – “It was a relatively short stage – says Domenico Pozzovivo – but with an explosive finish on a steep climb. It was important for me to recover positions and I achieved my goal. There are still two mountain stages and I will try to recover again “.
Bernal, Pozzovivo
The Italian rider finished 5th with a 31” gap from the stage winner the Dutch Antwan Tolhoek and is now 7th overall at 50” from the new race leader the Colombian Egan Bernal.
A very good race also for Rohan Dennis who has recovered two places in GC and is now second with only 12 seconds from the leadership.
“The start was a little bit stressful and quite wet – the ITT World Champion explains – and, after the break left, we stay out of troubles. On the last climb, me and Domenico we were in a good position and basically just left to us to suffer away to the top the best it was possible”.
“Tomorrow, I will try to make the same of today. The climbs are longer and I hope to stay with the GC contenders before the last time trial. If I could stay with Bernal I could get the jersey back and put myself in a good position, at least, to get a podium. It would be great ”.
“We made an excellent stage – comments SD Paolo Artuso – and we achieved our goal which was to arrive in the stage Top Five with Domenico and as far as possible with Rohan. We have two athletes in the Top Ten overall and tomorrow a very demanding stage awaits us with two real climbs and I think we can earn with Domenico and defend ourselves with Rohan on the eve of ITT ”.
The 7th stage is the longest in the Tour de Suisse. The route is almost 220km with two climbs before the summit finish at the Gotthard Pass. The final climb is 13.5 kilometers, while the last 8 kilometers are cobbled.
Stage
1 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 2:43:34
2 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos 0:00:17
3 François Bidard (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:24
4 Jan Hirt (Cze) Astana Pro Team 0:00:29
5 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:31
General
1 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos 18:40:18
2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:12
3 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:29
4 Jan Hirt (Cze) Astana Pro Team 0:00:35
5 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal
