Tour de Suisse 2024 - Stage 6: No racing hour: Almeida wins shortened queen stage ahead of Yates
Sebastian Lindner
· 14.06.2024
However, the dominance of the UAE Emirates team has not changed. On the contrary. On the much shorter stage, which was only 42 kilometres after the abolition of the Nufenen PassUAE once again had everything under control. Three and a half kilometres before the finish, in the middle of the final climb up to Blatten, Yates attacked after his team had kept the pace so high that a number of classification riders were no longer able to keep up. The Brit opened up a small gap, but it was never larger than ten seconds.
Behind them, a chasing trio formed, with Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) pulling Almeida up the climb in the slipstream. The latter went on the offensive as Bernal tried to close the gap to Yates. Almeida shook off his two rivals and bridged the gap to his captain at the 1,000 metre mark before pulling ahead of him and was even able to distance the man in the yellow jersey by four seconds in the final 300 metres. When Almeida crossed the finish line, the clock had not yet marked an hour of racing. It was the 25-year-old's first victory in almost a year.
Almeida has not yet ticked off overall victory
In the winner's interview, the Portuguese rider makes it clear that he has not yet said goodbye to overall victory. "I would still like to win myself," he said. "But we were both strong today. As long as we work well together as a team and respect each other as team-mates, as we always do, that's good. The focus is on the next two days and I hope we manage to defend the double lead."
Yates remains ahead in the overall standings, but his team rival has reduced the gap to 27 seconds. UAE doesn't seem to have to worry about any other rivals. Bernal in third place is already a minute and a half behind. Skjelmose, who has worked his way back up to fourth place and is once again wearing the white jersey of the best young rider, has one minute more on his account. The mountains and points jersey continue to sit on Yates' shoulders.
Tour de Suisse 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 5
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) 0:55:13
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +0:04
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +0:09
- Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:15
- Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) +0:35
- Thomas Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) +0:40
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +0:47
- Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:47
- Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar) +0:54
- Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:54
The current standings in the overall standings
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 16:39:46
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +0:27
- Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:28
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +2:24
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +2:38
- Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) +2:42
- Thomas Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) +3:28
- Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +3:37
- Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +4:01
- Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar) +4:28
How the 6th stage of the Tour de Suisse 2024 went
Due to the shortness of the stage, the official start had barely been given when it was immediately a hail of full-throttle attacks. Several groups tried to break away in the rain, but in the end Stefan Bissegger (EF Education EasyPost), Frank van den Broek (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Anders Foldager (Team Jayco-AlUla) managed to do so.
Before the seven-kilometre final climb, the breakaway had a 1:15-minute lead - and an average speed of 60 km/h on the speedometer. Foldager was the first to be dropped. Then van den Broek also left Bissegger behind with five kilometres to go.
With 3.5 kilometres to go, UAE had picked up the pace so quickly that the group of favourites had shrunk considerably. Yates went on the offensive, van den Broek was already caught again. Skjelmose, who had had another better day, went into the chase with Almeida and Bernal behind him.
With 1700 metres to go, Bernal tried to break away from his companions, but Almeida was able to close the gap again. Under the Devil's Lap, the Portuguese then jumped onto the rear wheel of Yates himself, who never had more than a ten-second lead. The duo rode together for a good half kilometre, after which Almeida was even able to break away from Yates to cross the finish line four seconds ahead of the Briton.
