Tour de Suisse stage 8 Live – Mountain time trial to decide GC winner

Former U23 ITT World Champion Johan Price-Pejtersen has set a new fastest time at the 12.5km intermediate time check: 29:12.

The day’s first starter Blum has no finished in a time of 39:05 but obviously, with so much talent to come, we can expect much faster times than that once the favourites get underway. 

With just over 100 riders left to start, Cees Bol (Astana Qazaqstan) has set the best time at the second checkpoint with a 29:16 and the first few riders are close to finishing the stage now.

Sam Watson (Groupama-FDJ) has overtaken Cavendish’s previous best time at T1 with a 6:13.

Despite Yates getting the win yesterday, he was quite sure that Almeida would be the man going into the race lead on today’s stage.

“I think for me personally as well, tomorrow’s time trial, he’s going to put almost a minute into me, so I’m sure you’ll see him on this chair tomorrow,” Yates said post-race.

“I think he’s shown in the last few days how strong he is when he starts doing his crazy pace. When he’s alone tomorrow in the TT, I think he’s going to fly up here. So, we’ll see tomorrow, and then hopefully we can win again.”

It is yet to be seen how the Brit will go in his 15.7km effort but if his teammates are so sure Almeida is flying, then the Portuguese rider will certainly be on top form.

Just a few kilometres until the opening few riders make it to the finish line in Villars-sur-Ollon and set the benchmark for the stage.

Here’s some of the key start times to look out for today between the best TT riders and GC riders who will be looking to move up or secure their positions overall in the TT:

14:00 – Johan Price Pejtersen (Bahrain-Victorious)
14:24 – Yves Lampaert (Soudal Quick-Step)
14:31 – Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost)
15:09 – Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ)
15:23 – Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers)
16:00 – Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates)
16:03 – Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike)
16:05 – Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale)
16:07 – Oscar Onley (DSM-Firmenich PostNL)
16:09 – Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers)
16:11 – Enric Mas (Movistar)
16:13 – Matthews Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech)
16:15 – Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek)
16:17 – Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers)
16: 19 – João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates)
16:21 – Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates)

Here’s a preview of some of the stunning views that will be taken in on today’s stage, as showed during the women’s race earlier today.

Cavendish has set the fastest time at the first checkpoint with a 6:16, ahead of Christoph Janssen (Swiss Cycling) and Alexis Renard (Cofidis).

There are two intermediate time checkpoints along the 15.7km route:

– Route d’Aigle – 5.2km

– Huémoz – 12.5km

– Finish – Villars-sur-Ollon – 15.7km

Recently knighted Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) has started, read all about him becoming a sir below:

Mark Cavendish knighted in King’s Birthday Honours ahead of final Tour de France

Riders will be starting an one minute intervals from Aigle, home to the headquarters of cycling’s governing body – the UCI.

Stage Start

Elia Blum (Swiss Cycling) is gone from the start ramp and stage 8 of the Tour de Suisse is officially underway!  

Five minutes from the start of the final stage.

A wonderful video on Gino from the Tour de Suisse.

It’s also one year since Gino Mäder tragically lost his life at the Tour de Suisse. An important day to remember the great person and great rider he was. May he rest in peace.

The route for today’s stage has already had some action on it with stage 2 of the women’s Tour de Suisse also taking in the 15.7km course:

Tour de Suisse Women: Demi Vollering wins again in stage 2 time trial

The first rider off the start ramp will be Elia Blum (Swiss Cycling), who is due to get going in just under 20 minutes at 13:46 CEST.

Adam Yates is the current race leader but he will be defending his lead against teammate João Almeida, who has been on equally flying form to the Brit. 

They’ve finished 1-2 on the last three stages with Almeida sat closest to Yates overall, 31 seconds down on his leader. Almeida is likely the better TT rider based on past history, however, the uphill nature plays in Yates’ hands. 

What’s certain is that UAE Team Emirates should finish 1-2 overall with third place Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) sat 1:51 of the lead and 1:21 off second. 

The final stage of the 2024 Tour de Suisse has a brutally tough 15.7km mountain ITT up to Villars-sur-Ollon on the menu, with the GC win set to be decided. 

Hello and welcome to Cyclingnews’ live coverage of stage 8 of the Tour de Suisse!