cycling: Tour de Suisse stage #4: Atapuma wins as a soloist – Latour in yellow

Cycling: The rain stayed, but the mountains came. On the 4th stage of the Tour de Suisse, a large group of leaders broke away early on. Darwin Atapuma (BMC) was the only one left and was able to celebrate the biggest victory of his career. The young Frenchman Pierre-Roger Latour (Ag2r) also celebrated his greatest success, taking the overall lead with his third place.

 

Huge leading group ensures high racing speed

After the prologue and three rather easy stages, everything should be different today at the Tour de Suisse. In the first mountain stage over 126,4 km from Brig to the top of the mountain in Cari, the focus today was on the mountain fleas. The weather was no different, however, because it rained again in beautiful Switzerland. Nevertheless, 24 riders got away very early, including top-class climbers like Darwin Atapuma and Silvan Dillier (both BMC), David Lopez (Sky), Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Kantstantin Siutsou (Dimension Data), Joseph Dombrowski and Davide Villella (both Cannondale) and Winner Anacona (Movistar). Also there was of course the wearer of the mountain jersey, Antwan Tolhoek (Roompot), who was able to successfully extend his lead on today's stage. It's understandable that the peloton didn't let this group go far away. Not only the size of the breakaway was scary, but also the quality of the drivers. With Dillier, Atapuma, Wellens, Dupont and Siutsou, five drivers from the top 11 in the overall standings were at the front. On the way up to the Gotthard Pass it started to rain heavily and, as expected, the leading group broke up, so that the Swiss Dillier fell back into the peloton a little later. Meanwhile, leader Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) had his first problems in the peloton. Atapuma reached the pass first ahead of Weening and Dupont.

 

Atapuma saves four seconds, Latour in yellow

With 22 km to go the lead has been reduced to the drivers Atapuma, Wellens, Anacona, Berhane, Dupont, Polanc and Siutsou, while in the peloton it was mainly Sky who took over the tracking work for Geraint Thomas. Already at the foot of the final climb, Sagan slowed down and said goodbye to the yellow jersey. At the front, the drivers in the leading group attacked each other. In the end, Atapuma was the first driver to really break away from his pursuers. With about five kilometers to go, his lead was just under a minute, while former members of the leading group were gradually being swallowed up by the field. There Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) first went on the offensive and attacked, which Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC) also tried later. Meanwhile, last year's winner Simon Spilak (Katusha) fell out of the group, as did Ion Izaguirre (Movistar) and the Swiss Matthias Frank (IAM). Barguil could already see Atapuma in the last 500 meters, but the Colombian saved four seconds to the finish. This is the biggest achievement of his career, as he was narrowly beaten several times at the Giro. Behind them was a fragmented group of several riders led by young Frenchman Pierre-Roger Latour (Ag2r). Surprisingly, he takes over the yellow jersey, ahead of Wilco Kelderman (Lotto-NL Jumbo) and five seconds ahead of Geraint Thomas (Sky), who is thus in ambush.

 

Tour de Suisse - The daily result of the 4th stage

 

Tour de Suisse – The overall standings after the 4th stage