In yet again high temperatures, the riders set off on the 190 km long route between Ambri and Novazzano. The final 75 km presented some short but steep climbs before the final uphill to the finish. Early on, the peloton let a five-man breakaway go and the lead soon stretched to over seven minutes. After the last of the escapees was caught about 15km from the line, there were several attacks on the final round of the Pedrinate climb and the peloton was reduced to about 15 riders, including Aleks Vlasov, Maximilian Schachmann, Felix Großschartner and Sergio Higuita. Max and Aleks were particularly active and tried to counter the attacks from this group. In the end, the duo managed to make it into a reduced leading group, which ultimately decided the victory among themselves. About 500m before the finish Max launched his sprint, but wasn’t able to get away and so then rode the lead-out for Aleks. Managing to sprint past Fuglsang and win the stage in Novazano, he also took the yellow jersey of the race leader. BORA-hansgrohe placed four riders in the top-10 today with Aleks, Felix, Sergio and Max.
From the Finish Line
“It was a tough race especially on the circuit. We tried to be always well positioned in the peloton and when the group of favourites became smaller, we still had four riders at the front. This allowed me to save a bit more energy for the finale. Many thanks to my teammates because they did a really strong job in these difficult weather conditions. In terms of the GC, we still have some important and difficult days ahead of us, but we will try to defend the jersey until the end. The fact that I also took the jersey today means more work for the team, but we have many strong riders here and we will give it our all.” – Aleksandr Vlasov
“We left it relatively open today because we couldn’t predict beforehand who would cope best and how, on this circuit, which was very technical and was raced in extremely hot temperatures of almost 40 degrees. The guys ultimately did a great job. In the end, we still had all six riders with us up to 20 kilometres from the finish, which also speaks of the incredible team strength we have here. In the end they took turns attacking. Max tried ahead of the finale, but was caught again. And then Aleks went on to win the sprint out of the small group with the help of Max, with Sergio and Felix also being at the front. So it couldn’t have gone any better. Now we are in the yellow jersey, three days before the end of one of the biggest stage races on the calendar and that makes us very proud. We will give everything to win the Tour de Suisse.” – Jens Zemke, Sports Director
Tour de Suisse Stage 5 results
1.Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) 4:30:28
2.Neilson Powless (EF Education First) s.t
3.Jakob Fuglsang (Israel Premier Tech) s.t
Tour de Suisse General Classification after stage 5
1.Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) 22:16:58
2.Jakob Fuglsang (Israel Premier Tech) +6’’
3.Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers) +7’’
