It was the Tour de Suisse’s longest day, and if the 216.6km distance wasn’t hard enough on its own, the race organizers had put three categorised climbs on the route, increasing in difficulty as the day went on. Starting with a second category climb, the riders progressed to the first category Lukmanierpass before ending on the race’s first Hors Catégorie climb – the Passo del San Gottardo. This summit finish wasn’t only tough because of its distance and steepness – 12.7km at an average gradient of 7.3% – but also because it’s paved with cobblestones, and just to top everything off, there was snow on the ground today as well. The first 50km of the parcours was flat, and there were some desperate attempts to escape when the going was still relatively easy, but the peloton was going to make the breakaway work for it on such a pivotal stage.
Almost at the foot of the first climb, a small group of five finally managed to get away, growing to eight as the day went on. Looking to help Patrick Konrad save energy for the final climb later in the day, the whole BORA-hansgrohe squad stayed around him to keep him safe and allow the other teams to keep the break in touch. At the halfway point the escape had almost three minutes on the peloton, an advantage that would only grow as the day went on, hitting its peak of four minutes 50km from the finish.
With 30km remaining, BORA-hansgrohe took to the front to chip away at this lead, with the gap down to two minutes with 20km still to go, and as the remnants of the break hit the foot of the final climb, it was here they started attacking each other. The peloton upped the pace once again to reduce the break’s advantage to less than a minute, which now consisted of a trio chasing another rider who had managed to escape, as their lead dropped to forty seconds once they reached the final 10km, the peloton picking off the break one by one.
With 5.5km to go, it was all over for the break and a select group of around fifteen riders started the fight for the GC. It was here, after one rider had already soloed off the front, that the race leader Bernal went on the attack himself, passing the solo rider and going it alone. The bunch was slow to respond to this move, the steep slopes and the cobbled road surface making it hard to react. For those who tried to chase, the five riders trying to bridge, it just wasn’t possible.
Results
01 E. Bernal 5:37:40
02 D. Pozzovivo +0:23
03 R. Dennis +0:23
04 P. Konrad +0:34
General
1 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos 24:17:48
2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:41
3 Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:13
4 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:17
5 Jan Hirt (Cze) Astana Pro Team 0:01:19
