Overwhelming dominance of UAE Team Emirates at the Tour de Suisse 2024. This time the winning turn went to Portugal’s João Almeida, who won the short sixth stage that was shortened due to heavy snowfall in the Swiss Alps in recent weeks.
The Portuguese rider came in 4 seconds ahead of teammate Adam Yates, who retained the leader’s jersey. Third came Danish Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl – Trek) at 9 seconds and fourth finished Colombian Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) at 15 seconds behind Almeida.
The organization had to cancel the high pass of Nufenen (14 km at 7.9%) and shorten considerably the sixth day, leaving a route of only 42.5 kilometers, with a finish in the ski resort of Belalp (5.8 km at 8.8%).
The day started with many attacks, the first to move was Frenchman Alexis Renard (Cofidis), who became the first attacker of the day almost immediately after the start, but was quickly neutralized.
The day’s breakaway was led by Swiss Stefan Bisseger (EF Education-EasyPost), Dutchman Frank van den Broek (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Dane Anders Foldager (Jayco AlUla), but in the hilly area the trio was neutralized by the favorites.
In the final stretch, INEOS Grenadiers made a brief attempt to surprise UAE Team Emirates on the first part of the last climb, but Adam Yates’ teammates soon took over again. The preparatory work this time came from Mexico’s Isaac del Toro. With 3.5 kilometers to go Yates accelerated.
Among the chasers British Mattias Skjelmose was the man who put up the most resistance, the Danish Lidl-Trek champion had Colombian Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) on his wheel and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) a little further back.
With just over a kilometer to go, Bernal pulled away from Skjelmose’s wheel, hoping to close the gap to Yates. For a moment he seemed to succeed, but the beetle was caught by his pursuers. There, a strong Almeida became increasingly active.
Just after the last kilometer, the Portuguese passed Yates. Almeida, once again, set the pace for his leader, but with a few meters to go, the Portuguese distanced himself from his leader, allowing him to take the stage victory.
The Swiss race will continue this Saturday with the penultimate stage, another hilly day of 118.2 kilometers around Villars-sur-Ollon, which will have a first category finish.
Tour de Suisse (2.UWT)
Results Stage 6 | Ulrichen – Blatten (42,5 km)
| 1 | João Almeida | UAE Team Emirates | 0:55:13 |
| 2 | Adam Yates | UAE Team Emirates | 0:04 |
| 3 | Mattias Skjelmose | Lidl – Trek | 0:09 |
| 4 | Egan Bernal | INEOS Grenadiers | 0:15 |
| 5 | Lenny Martinez | Groupama – FDJ | 0:35 |
| 6 | Thomas Pidcock | INEOS Grenadiers | 0:40 |
| 7 | Enric Mas | Movistar Team | 0:47 |
| 8 | Matthew Riccitello | Israel – Premier Tech | ,, |
| 9 | Pelayo Sánchez | Movistar Team | 0:54 |
| 10 | Felix Gall | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | ,, |
Ranking General
| 1 | Adam Yates | UAE Team Emirates | 16:39:46 |
| 2 | João Almeida | UAE Team Emirates | 0:27 |
| 3 | Egan Bernal | INEOS Grenadiers | 1:28 |
| 4 | Mattias Skjelmose | Lidl – Trek | 2:24 |
| 5 | Enric Mas | Movistar Team | 2:38 |
| 6 | Matthew Riccitello | Israel – Premier Tech | 2:42 |
| 7 | Thomas Pidcock | INEOS Grenadiers | 3:28 |
| 8 | Oscar Onley | Team dsm-firmenich PostNL | 3:37 |
| 9 | Felix Gall | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | 4:01 |
| 10 | Pelayo Sánchez | Movistar Team | 4:28 |
Source: Revista Mundo Ciclistico