Oscar Onley (Picnic-PostNL) has won the toughest stage of the Tour de Suisse, with leading favourite João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) making major inroads in the overall, but Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) hanging on to oust compatriot Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) from the top spot on GC.
In a breathtaking day of racing featuring a double ascent of the Cat.1 Castaneda with the summit finish two kilometres further on at Santa Maria in Calanca, Onley just outsprinted Almeida for the stage victory.
Third was Félix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R), some 15 seconds back, with Vauquelin 40 seconds back.
The overall battle will likely come down to Sunday's final time trial, with Almeida poised to challenge, but Vauquelin moving into the lead for now.
"Definitely not at the start today," Onley said when asked if he knew he could win the stage. "I knew I was in good shape and I was feeling good this week, but obviously with Almeida here, he's been really strong so far and it wasn't even guaranteed if the win would come from the bunch with a strong break up front, and not the strongest teams behind to chase. But I felt good all day, and then I just gave it a go on the last climb.
"I don't win often, and I've had quite a few podiums this year so far, or quite close results, so to pull it off today is really nice for myself, and also for the team and my teammates, because they do a really good job every day, and today was no different, so it's nice to be able to pay them back."
Onley's win moves him up to fourth overall, 1:21 down on new leader Vauquelin, but whilst Almeida missed out on the win, he remains the main beneficiary at the end of Thursday's tough stage.
How it unfolded
It was an emotional start to the day for the Tour de Suisse at La Punt, as the race remembered Gino Mäder in the same town that two years ago had played host to the finish of the stage when he suffered a fatal crash on the nearby Albulapass. Before racing got underway on Thursday, a new memorial was unveiled in his honour on that climb.
After a very aggressive start for a second day running, five riders were finally given the nod over the top of the first of four cat. 1 climbs, the Julienpass: Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), in the break for the third day running, Javier Romo, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana).
Coming off the Julienpass, after a long descent, the quintet had a gap of just over two minutes and by the foot of the 7.5km Passo del San Bernadino, it had risen to just over three.
Just as on stage 4, though, UAE were in no mood to give the other GC contenders a rest and they began piling on the pressure on the Bernadino at the front of a fast-crumbling peloton. It didn't seem to matter that there was still 70 kilometres to go, the sight of three UAE riders driving away on the front ahead of Almeida in his black points leader jersey provided a serious shaking-out of the weaker riders, and by the summit the peloton had shrunk to just 50 riders or fewer.
Vlasov claimed maximum points to ensure he was in the lead of the mountains ranking, and then the five leaders began the long, sweeping, but thankfully very well-surfaced descent to the crucial double climb of the Castaneda.
With the pronounced acceleration by the UAE continuing, the five ahead were equally determined to stay out of reach, and all the way down to the valley floor past a series of ruined castles and reservoirs, the gap remained at two minutes. By the end of this 40 kilometre descent the bunch had gained a few elements but the overall dynamic of the stage - UAE chasing a very powerful breakaway of four - remained the same.
Following the small section of flatter road prior to the crunch Castaneda ascent, with Fortunato leading the five onto its lower slopes, the gap was a mere 1:15 and the main question being asked was: how soon would Almeida attack? Given the shortness of the Castaneda, Mikkel Bjerg instantly opened up the throttle, shadowed by Lidl-Trek's Tao Geoghegan Hart, the painfully narrow, steep series of switchbacks piled on top of each other in dense woodland, seemingly no obstacle.
Two and a half kilometres from the top, Vlasov was the first to break the cooperation in the break, followed by Powless and Bilbao. But there was a power change in the peloton, though, as Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, working for Felix Gall, briefly overhauled the UAE train.
Decathlon's surge put paid to race leader Romain Grégoire, who was dropped, while Powless and then Bilbao regained contact with Vlasov, but the margins were constantly narrowing. Finally, 400 metres to go on the climb, Almeida suddenly blasted to the fore, shrinking a group already down to just a dozen riders to a bare seven.
By the summit, Vlasov and Bilbao were the only two ahead of the Almeida group by around 14 seconds, which still contained second on GC Kévin Vauquelin and Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor), as well as Gall, Ilan Van Wilder (Soudal-QuickStep), Oscar Onley, and Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech). But rivals of the calibre of Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AIUla) were already missing and, of course, Grégoire, by now was nearly 2:00 back, his lead irremediably lost.
Bilbao blasted down the fast, much more straightforward descent, with Vlasov shadowing him, and finally Powless. But the chase group was swelling too, allowing Vauquelin's troops to regain contact and finally with nine kilometres to go the breakaways were caught.
The front group of around a dozen riders were rapidly reduced by Decathlon's pace on the lower slopes, once again forcing O'Connor out of the running. However, rather than the first decisive attack coming from Almeida, Alaphilippe opened up hostilities, followed by Onley, and Almeida began to drop back.
Onley then went clear three kilometres from the line, but Almeida began his customary late surge, roaring past one rider after another and reaching Onley less than a kilometre later. Moving through the inside of a left hand curve, Almeida piled on the pressure remorselessly, leading Onley over the summit and onto the final, much shorter ascent.
Keen to take as much time as possible, Almeida didn't ask Onley for a turn, meaning the Portuguese rider did the bulk of the work in the finale. Then, in the final 300m, Onley launched his sprint first, and Almeida couldn't quite match him – a late acceleration saw him push the Scot to the line, but Onley just held on to claim only his second pro victory.
Gall took third, 23 seconds down, whilst Vauquelin came home 57 seconds down but enough to claim the race lead. Yellow jersey at the start of the day, Romain Grégoire had a torrid day, eventually finishing nearly seven minutes down and saying goodbye to his stint in the lead. Alaphilippe moved up to second overall, 29 seconds down.
Though Vauquelin leads, Almeida is very much back in the GC in this race after losing time early on, sitting just 39 seconds off the lead with two road stages and a time trial still to come.
Results
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