In the final time trial the powerful Portuguese couldn’t be beaten. With his third stage win of this year’s Tour, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates XRG) takes the overall victory. Race leader Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa B&B Hotels) finished the Tour in second place overall. Oscar Onley (Team Picnic PostNL) completes the podium in third place.
After having to ride for his teammate Adam Yates last year, there was nothing to stop João Almeida from taking top spot this time around. The Portuguese rider also achieves the Swiss double with this victory: winning the Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suisse in the same year. Kévin Vauquelin, who started the stage in the yellow jersey, lost 1:40 minutes to the winner in today’s time trial, but held on to second place against the rest of the field.
It was a sweltering 10 kilometre time trial from Beckenried up to Stockhütte. The heat of the contest for overall victory had simmered however as Almeida was simply too strong. Felix Gall (Decathlon Ag2r La Mondiale) was the only rider with a chance to steal the day’s glory. The Austrian set the provisional fastest time only to be beaten by Almeida by 25 seconds.
No great Swiss threat at this Tour de Suisse
Despite solid performances, the Swiss riders were unable to make their mark in the end. Although Swiss riders repeatedly participated in promising breakaways, it was not enough to secure a stage win. The best Swiss rider in the General Classification is Mauro Schmid (Team Jaco AlUla) in 43rd place. The Swiss champ was also the best local rider in today’s stage, finishing 56th, 4:22 minutes behind the leader.
Unfortunately, the Swiss team Tudor Pro Cycling was also unable to maintain its podium position in the General Classification. Julian Alaphilippe was overtaken by Almeida on today’s course and lost a total of over four minutes. As a result, he slipped to fifth place overall. However, this is still a strong result for the leader of the young Swiss team.
The other rankings remained unchanged today. With his stage win, Almeida also secured victory in the points classification. Aleksandr Vlasov had been crowned KOM leader two days ago. And Kévin Vauquelin had to be content to top the young rider classification. It was a surprising win in the team classification: Isreal – Premiertech took the lead ahead of UAE Team Emirates XRG, Almeida’s team.
