Tour de Suisse: Felix Gall wins stage and takes yellow

With the first professional victory of his career, Austrian Felix Gall surprisingly took the yellow jersey at the Tour de Suisse and stole the show from the top stars.

The 25-year-old soloed to victory on the fourth stage over 152.5 kilometres from Monthey to Leukerbad, replacing the Danish rider Mattias Skjelmose, who came third this time, at the top of the overall standings.

Belgian road cycling world champion Remco Evenepoel crossed the finish line in second place, but again had problems on the climb and lost more than a minute to Gall. In the overall standings, Gall is now two seconds ahead of Skjelmose and 16 seconds ahead of Evenepoel.

"A new experience for me"

"I'm overwhelmed and can't really believe it yet. I'm in the form of my life. I hope I can enjoy it. Let's see what's possible on Thursday. It's a new experience for me to ride at this level," said Gall, who has been a professional for four years and has made a leap in performance this year with several top-five finishes.

Two-time German champion Maximilian Schachmann was part of the group of favourites for a long time and finally crossed the finish line 1:49 minutes back in tenth place. The Berlin-born rider thus improved to 16th place in the overall standings.

On Thursday, tough climbs await the riders again on the 211-kilometre fifth stage from Fiesch to La Punt over the Furka Pass, the Oberalp Pass and the Abula Pass.

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