UAE-Emirates continue to dominate this year’s Tour de Suisse with another win up a climb, this time Adam Yates and Joao Almeida finishing arm-in-arm, with Almeida agreeing that his British teammate could take the victory.
After three high ᵉW/Kg days, it was another mountain top finish up Villars-Sur-Ollon. DSM -firmenich PostNL climbing talent Oscar Onley spent 2,355 kilojoules for 2:41h with 15.64 kj/kg/h. It was a very intense but short day. This time, INEOS paced the climb with Ethan Hayter and Brandon Rivera until the UAE stars attacked. With 3 km to go, Joao Almeida launched with Adam Yates, Wilco Kelderman and Matthew Riccitello following. But both UAE climbers again were the strongest, dropping everyone and riding a team time-trial in the last kilometres of the climb.
The ᵉW/Kg might have been higher, but Yates and Almeida did not need extra time in the GC before the Villars-Sur-Ollon mountain time trial, as they have gained enough of a gap in the previous climbing stages. Adam Yates and Joao Almeida averaged 6.44 ᵉW/Kg for 23:05 min on the climb. Matthew Riccitello had another strong performance at WorldTour level, finishing third with 6.36 ᵉW/Kg for 23:19 min. Kelderman, Skjelmose, Onley, Pidcock and Bernal were in the following group, averaging 6.33 ᵉW/Kg.
Yates has a 31-second gap over Almeida and 1:51 min over the closest non-UAE rider, Bernal. The gap might be enough for Yates to secure the overall win in tomorrow's mountain time trial, but Almeida might perform better tomorrow for the stage win. Bernal has a 59-second lead over Skjelmose and likely will remain on the podium.
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