Pure excitement at the Tour de Suisse 2023: After just one day, Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën Team) has already lost the overall leader's yellow jersey. The Austrian had to hand over the leader's jersey on the queen stage to Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo), who secured six bonus seconds as the day's runner-up and also crossed the finish line four seconds ahead of Gall.
However, Juan Ayuso proved to be the strongest rider among the favourites. The 20-year-old from UAE Team Emirates left the competition in his wake on the Albula Pass, the last climb of the day, and stormed to a solo stage win after 211 kilometres and three difficult Alpine passes in La Punt. Ayuso is therefore once again a very hot candidate for overall victory, just 18 seconds behind Skjelmose.
Juan Ayuso wins stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse 2023
"I'm happy to have won a stage here. Now we will fight for the overall classification. I had bad legs yesterday. Today I felt much better," said the stage winner. However, Ayuso does not see himself as the top favourite for overall victory at the Tour de Suisse 2023. "Remco (Evenepoel) is not far behind and we all know how strong he is in the time trial. Mattias (Skjelmose) can also deliver a very good time trial. And Felix (Gall) may not have shown that yet, but he's in great shape," said Ayuso.
The top 10 of stage 5
- Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) 5:23:01
- Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo) +0:54
- Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:54
- Rigoberto Uran (EF Education EasyPost) +0:54
- Romain Bardet (Team DSM) +0:54
- Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma) +0:54
- Rui Costa (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) +0:58
- Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën Team) +0:58
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +1:01
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +1:20
The overall standings
- Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo) 16:43:41
- Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën Team) +0:08
- Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +0:18
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:46
- Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:57
- Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma) +1:16
- Romain Bardet (Team DSM) +1:29
- Rigoberto Uran (EF Education EasyPost) +1:54
- Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:57
- Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech) 3:00
How the 5th stage of the Tour de Suisse 2023 went
For a long time, the difficult Alpine stage was dominated by a large breakaway group, including Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma). The decision was made on the climb to the Albula Pass, where AG2R stepped up the pace for Felix Gall, before the overall leader attacked himself and formed a breakaway with Wilco Kelderman (Jumbo-Visma), Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), Romain Bardet (Team DSM) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious) from the rest of the favourites.
Around 14 kilometres before the finish, Ayuso went one better, outpacing his companions around Gall with a powerful attack, catching the remaining breakaway riders around Rui Costa (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) and Neilson Powless (EF Education EasyPost) twelve kilometres before the finish and rode straight away from them.
Evenepoel not among the very best
Behind him, Bardet ran into problems and was caught by the group around Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) and Mattias Skjelmose (Trek-Segafredo), while Ayuso reached the summit of the Albula Pass alone. The youngster had already gained around a minute on the Gall group.
Ayuso mastered the descent confidently and won the stage. Behind him, Skjelmose and some of his rivals closed the gap to the yellow jersey of Gall, who got a gap to Skjelmose in the last few hundred metres. The Dane sprinted to second place and used the six bonus seconds to reclaim the leader's jersey, which he had ceded to the Austrian the day before.
