BARCELONA, 14 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Portuguese cyclist João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) won this Friday the sixth stage of the Tour of Switzerland, shortened and finally contested between Ulrichen and Blatten over just 42.5 kilometers, in a new double for the team since Adam Yates, still the leader overall, he was second behind his teammate, reversing the roles in Thursday’s double.
The UAE Team Emirates remains unstoppable in this 87th edition of the Swiss round, but this time João Almeida gained 4 seconds at the finish line on its leader Adam Yates and, with another 4″ of extra bonus, he is now 27 seconds behind the Briton in the provisional general, in which Yates continues to command.
In fact, Adam Yates was the first to attack in the group of favorites. He did it with 3.3 kilometers to go and his attack ended with Frank van den Broek (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), the last member of a breakaway who attempted it almost from the beginning.
No one followed him first, but the Colombian Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) accelerated with 1.5 kilometers remaining and after him came the Dane Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and the Portuguese Almeida, reaching Bernal just 500 meters further on.
Already within the last kilometer and when it seemed that Yates would revalidate the victory he achieved on Thursday, Almeida accelerated and after leaving Skjlemose and Bernal behind he reached his leader, who he pulled a few meters until he saw that he was really going stronger.
After passing the 300 meters to the finish line, Yates was somewhat off the hook and Almeida, without attacking, did gain a few meters of advantage until he was able to celebrate his victory, his twelfth as a professional, in addition to cutting his disadvantage over Yates by 8 seconds in the general standings. .
After this short stage, and that unexpected change of roles at the end, Yates now has a 27-second margin over Almeida, with Bernal third at 1:28, Skjelmose fourth at 2:24 and the Spanish Enric Mas (Movistar Team), who gave way far from the finish line, he is now fifth at 2:38, giving up his place to the Dane.
This sixth stage was shortened by the organization this Friday. They had to leave Locarno and reach Blatten after 151.4 kilometers and the passage – canceled – through the Nufenenpass (Special category, with 21.9 kilometers of ascent at 6 percent average slope). In the end the stage was reduced to those 42.5 kilometers and the only final climb to Blatten, a 5.8-kilometer category 1 climb at an 8.7 percent average gradient.