Tour de Suisse 2024 - Stage 5: Double victory! UAE plays with the competition
Thomas Goldmann
· 13.06.2024
While Tadej Pogacar is taking a break from racing after the Giro d'Italia, his team-mates Adam Yates and Joao Almeida are dominating the Tour de Suisse. Two and a half weeks before the start of the Tour de France 2024, the two riders, who are set to help the Slovenian in the Tour of France, took the competition apart on stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse.
Tour de Suisse 2024: Adam Yates wins ahead of Joao Almeida on stage 5
Yates, who had already been successful on the Gotthard Pass the day before, also won the mountain finish in Cari and extended his lead in the overall standings. Almeida crossed the finish line five seconds behind the Briton and thus remains second overall. Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) finished 16 seconds behind the UAE duo.
Yates praised his team-mate Almeida in particular after the stage. "That was a strong performance. Joao Almeida set a crazy pace at the end. I just had to keep up with him for four or five kilometres. And even when I attacked, he was still there. He's obviously in great shape and the whole team is super motivated for the rest of the week," said the 31-year-old Briton in the official winner's interview.
Tour de Suisse 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 5
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 3:54:37
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +0:05
- Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:16
- Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:18
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +0:22
- Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +0:54
- Thomas Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:54
- Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:03
- Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +1:13
- Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease a Bike) +1:20
The current standings in the overall standings
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 15:44:35
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +0:35
- Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:11
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +1:49
- Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) +1:53
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +2:17
- Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +2:21
- Thomas Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) +2:46
- Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma | Lease a Bike) +2:51
- Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) +3:01
How the 5th stage of the Tour de Suisse 2024 went
Two prominent retirements were announced after stage 4: Richard Carapaz and Alberto Bettiol (both EF Education EasyPost) were unable to continue the race after their crash the day before - and Jacopo Guarnieri (Lotto-Dstny) was also unable to continue. Another rider, Jordi Warlop (Soudal - Quick Step), abandoned during stage 5. Shortly after the start, the race entered the climb to Ronco (2nd category). Even before that, a first lead group of eight riders was able to break away, including Ben Zwiehoff (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan Team).
On the second climb in Cari (1st category), however, the peloton became so fast that initially only Lutsenko was able to stay in front. The peloton around overall leader Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) was down to 20 riders at one point. Lutsenko was also caught in the meantime, but won the mountain classification in Cari and then broke away with three companions: One Rubio (Movistar), Nans Peters (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech). Johannes Staune-Mittet (Visma | Lease a Bike) joined them later. UAE Team Emirates gave the breakaway a maximum lead of around two minutes.
UAE Team Emirates ups the pace on the final climb
This meant that the leading group's chances of winning the day were extremely slim. Williams was the first breakaway rider to be caught, his remaining rivals shortly after the start of the final climb. Ineos Grenadiers and UAE Team Emirates ensured a breakaway on the first kilometres of the climb. In the end, it was first Isaac del Toro and then Joao Almeida who prepared the terrain for Adam Yates.
Nobody can follow Adam Yates
Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Enric Mas (Movistar) were able to parry the first attack of the overall leader 1700 metres before the finish. However, it then became too fast for Bernal and he let go. Shortly afterwards, Yates also left Mas behind and rode to victory alone. Behind them, Almeida fought his way back to Bernal and Mas and also overtook them - Mas even had to let the strong American Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) pass.
The big loser of the day was Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek). The Dane had to break away early in the final climb and lost 1:41 minutes to Yates, three positions in the overall standings and probably all chances of defending his title at the Tour de Suisse 2024.
