João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) snatched overall victory at the Tour de Suisse from Kévin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) with a superb ride in the final mountain time trial stage.
Almeida won the stage in a time of 27:33, giving his all until the line. He beat Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R), who set 27:58.
Vauquelin started last in the yellow jersey but seemed to struggle on the climb. He was 22 seconds down on Almeida after 4.5km and lost more time as the gradient steepened.
Vauquelin set a time of 29:13, 1:40 down, meaning Almeida won the 2025 Tour de Suisse by 1:07.
Scotland's Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) set a time of 28:45, enough to finish third on the stage and lift him to third overall, ahead of Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling), who struggled and was caught by Almeida on the climb.
Almeida lost 2:52 to Vauquelin on stage 1 but fought back day after day. He won stage 4 to take a minute back and then another 57 seconds on stage 5, giving him the belief that overall victory was possible. Victory on stage 7 gave him another seven precious seconds, leaving 33 seconds to make up during the final time trial.
Almeida started fast, pedalled faster and could smile at the summit. He gasped for breath as he rode on beyond the finish line. He soon recovered and could watch and wait for Vauquelin to finish, and confirmation that he was the Tour de Suisse winner. He lost the 2024 race by 22 seconds. This year, the big winner's trophy was his.
"I'm super happy. I did a good climb, and I was feeling really good. For once, I hope my power metre was not calibrated because I had higher numbers. I'm super happy," Almeida said.
"I think I started too fast, I overpaced in the beginning. In the end, I hoped to have enough gas to push in the last kilometre, but in the end it was not necessary."
Almeida's early time loss turned into a valuable life lesson. "One mistake can cost you a lot; luckily, we could make it up," he said.
"At the end of the day, it's a lesson: you should never give up. Sometimes things go wrong and nothing is perfect, but you need to keep trying. We kept trying and we did it."
He will now turn his focus to the Tour de France, but only after a moment of celebration. "I'll have time to enjoy this win and I'll be ready for the Tour de France," Almeida promised.
"I'll support Tadej Pogačar there and hope we can get more great wins."
How it unfolded
The Tour de Suisse had been a thrilling battle for every second on every stage and the final 10km mountain time trial from Beckenried to Stockhütte would finally confirm and crown the final overall winner.
The riders raced in several waves to allow race vehicles to descend back to the start, with Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost) condemned to stay in the hot seal for a long spell after setting the fastest time of 29:27.
Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana-XDS), Frank van den Broek (Picnic-PostNL), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) all went close to the Australian's time but failed to take the hot seat.
For most other riders the time trial was the chance to recover from an intense week of racing, especially those who had ridden the Giro d'Italia, like Bilbao, Fortunato and the USA's Larry Warbasse (Tudor).
Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AUla) lost time on the mountain stages during the week but fought back in the time trial, finishing seventh and so seventh overall, 5:08 down on Almeida.
Gall showed his improving form on stage 7 and again in the time trial. He finished fast and dethroned Sweeny from the hot seat with a super effort and time of 27:58.
That seemed like the stage winning time as Onley set 28:45 and Alaphilippe slipped off the final podium to fifth behind Gall, with a time of 31:22. However Almeida was on fire and despite going a little too deep early on, he had the power to survive the final steep gradients and stop the clock in a GC winning time of 29:29.
Results
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