This year’s Tour de Suisse has provided ample rewards for breakaway riders as the race heads into the final weekend, with Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) winning the opening stage and taking the GC lead from a large break on stage 1 then Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) soloing home from the break of the day on stage 3.
After two days of GC confrontations on stages 4 and 5, Friday’s sixth stage would host a battle between those breakaway men and the peloton’s sprinters, who only had this stage to look forward to all week.
A strong group went up the road early on, including Groupama-FDJ youngster Grégoire, who ceded yellow two days ago, Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost), and Swiss champion Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla).
Another home favourite also who made the move was Grégoire’s teammate Stefan Küng, who hailed from Wil, a town located on the day’s route as the stage darted north through eastern Switzerland.
In the end, the four men couldn’t hold off the cumulative power of the sprint teams, though the quartet, including combativity prize winner Küng, put up a brave fight, falling just 1km short of glory on the 187km stage.
“It was such a hard day out there again,” the 31-year-old Küng, three times a Tour de Suisse stage winner, told CyclingPro after the finish, before acknowledging that there was only one real reason he went on the attack today.
“It was my home region, so I think if it wasn’t at home, I wouldn’t have gone in the break because my legs were already hurting at the start. It actually sounds kind of weird, but I was able to find my legs a little bit during the stage, and I felt like towards the end, I could really push on.
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“We had a strong group, and everybody was working really well. We didn’t even have to speak to each other; everyone was just pulling as hard as they could. It’s just so hard. I know how it is in the end, like arm wrestling between the bunch and the breakaway, but what can you do? This time we lost the battle even though it was very close.”
Küng was among the last of the break caught, with Grégoire, who had defended the race lead fiercely following stage 1, dropping back from the move with 45km to go after pushing hard for his Swiss teammate.
The remaining trio held onto 40 seconds heading into the final 20km, a lead which was halved over the next 10km, but an advantage that proved stubborn for the lead-out trains to fully bridge as the finish neared.
However, 10 seconds at 3km to go eventually turned to nothing, with the peloton making the junction just in time to set up the closing sprint, won by Jordi Meeus (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
“Today was the only opportunity for the sprinters in this Tour de Suisse,” Küng said later. “You could already see at the start that quite a few teams were interested that we have a bunch sprint today.
“We heard the action from behind,” he continued, referring to a chase move mounted partway through the day by Bahrain Victorious duo Matej Mohorič and Pello Bilbao, plus Arkéa-B&B Hotels rider Ewen Costiou.
“If they really would’ve been able to get a little gap, it would’ve been time to wait. But you don’t wait when they’re only a minute in front of the bunch and 1:30 behind you. You just have to keep pushing.
“It was a hard pace the whole day, so we could never really recover, and in the end, on these rolling roads, it’s better to be in the bunch than in the front. The momentum of the whole bunch goes quicker. But anyway, as long as you have something in your legs, you leave it all out there.”
Küng and Grégoire may not have come away with another win for their team to pair with the opening day’s success, but the veteran still had praise for his 22-year-old teammate, who went above and beyond after an already tiring week of racing.
“This wasn’t 100 percent the plan. The plan was to help get me in the breakaway,” he said. “Already when we were at the front, I said, ‘Look, man, if you feel dead from all the days you gave everything, you can also sit up’, but he was like ‘No, no, I’ll just ride as long as I can’.
“He did a big pull to finish his work off. It shows his mentality, his personality. He’s a great guy and he always gives 100% whether it’s for himself or for the team.”
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