With perfect conditions and a competitive environment, almost all the GC riders set their best pure ᵉW/Kg values or close them in the exciting Tour de Suisse stage 6 mountain top finish.

Due to the weather conditions rendering the major pass impassable, stage 6 was shortened to 43 kilometres, which meant it would be the best possible w/kg test for World Tour riders. The first 34.5 kilometres of the stage went downhill and served as a good warm-up. The final test was up the Blatten climb (7.1 km, 9.1%), where in the 2005 Giro d’Italia Femminile Nicole Brändli set one of the most impressive climbing performances in women’s cycling.

UAE-Emirates after two successful mountain stages, again set a fierce tempo up the climb with young climbing talents Jan Christen and Isaac del Toro. After being the strongest rider on the climb the day before, Joao Almeida was riding behind the race leader Adam Yates. But similarly to stage 4 when Yates attacked, Almeida stayed in the group, while Mattias Skjelmose and Egan Bernal were chasing after the Briton. Almeida attacked both rivals with 1 kilometre to go and quickly bridged to his teammate. Yates kept pushing hard, but Almeida overtook him and was stronger in the end.

With all the perfect conditions and a super hard pace throughout the climb, the ᵉW/Kg numbers went through the roof. Even in the mountain time trials, the riders do not perform that well or in training sessions where they test their maximum power for a certain duration. Tour de Suisse stage 6 was the perfect 20-minute test for all the riders, as they had the motivation and adrenaline to perform in a competitive environment to relatively low altitude in moderate weather conditions. As the race was in Switzerland the wind was neutral on the climb as usual.

Adam Yates pushed 7.19 ᵉW/Kg for 19:31 min, while Joao Almeida with more draft averaged 7.13 ᵉW/Kg. Mattias Skjelmose after an unsuccessful stage yesterday performed better on easy parcour with 7.13 ᵉW/Kg for 19:36 min. All three riders broke the All-Time Top 30 trend line, which has become more like the red Generational trend line as the riders have improved in the last two years and continue to reach new heights. Even Egan Bernal and 10th place finisher Felix Gall broke the red trend line, which 10 years ago in the Sky era even in such perfect conditions was practically impossible.

UAE Emirates’ star climbing duo Adam Yates and Joao Almeida again performed in Tour de Suisse stage 5, pushing very high watts on the mighty Carì climb.

Carì (11.59 km, 8.05%) was suited for strong pure climbers like Adam Yates. The race started extremely hard, with two threshold efforts on early climbs. The GC group pushed 6.15 ᵉW/Kg for 16 min on Altanca and 6.10 ᵉW/Kg for 25 min on Carì — the finish climb from a different side. The valley was easy and slow with riders recovering after a tough start. Before the final climb, Oscar Onley spent 2,593 kilojoules for 3:22h with 13.53 kj/kg/h.

Matthew Riccitello and Matteo Badilatti attacked early in the climb, but both got caught. INEOS were pacing, and the group was around 20 men deep when Brandon Rivera was riding at the front. UAE took over with Isaac Del Toro and Joao Almeida riding full gas, reducing the group and making Mattias Skjelmose and others drop. Almeida was looking strong and only his teammate and race leader Adam Yates, Egan Bernal, Enric Mas and Matthew Riccitello could keep up in the draft. Riccitello had a performance of his career as he wasted some energy with an early attack but made the elite group.

Yates attacked late on the climb, with Bernal and Mas trying to follow him but dropping after some time. Almeida who was riding at his tempo caught Bernal and Mas and in the end was not far from his Yates, losing only 6 seconds after pulling for multiple kilometres. British duo Oscar Onley and Tom Pidcock lost 54 seconds, while Skjelmose after a great day on Gotthardpass lost almost 1:41 min.

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Joao Almeida was the hero of the day with 6.51 ᵉW/Kg for 31:47 min as he was pulling the leading group for 6 km. It was probably the best Almeida performance we have seen so far. Adam Yates pushed 6.46 ᵉW/Kg for 31:42 min. Mas, Bernal and Riccitello all did their best or one of the best performances of career with 6.35 – 6.37 ᵉW/Kg. Even Pidcock and Onley who finished 54 seconds after Yates where, doing great for their standards with 6.25 ᵉW/Kg.

The UAE Emirates brought a strong team to the Tour de Suisse with Adam Yates, Joao Almeida and Isaac del Toro. UAE’s leader Adam Yates was unstoppable on Gotthardpass and was only stopped by the early breakaway in his path to victory.

It was the first big mountain top finish in the 2024 Tour de Suisse, which is loaded with climbs. Stage 4 was a hard test for climbers with Schöllenen (4.5 km, 7.5%) and Gotthardpass (8.2 km, 6.6%) combination at the end. Between both climbs, there was a 3-kilometre flat section. The peloton did Schöllenen in 19 minutes with 5.80 ᵉW/Kg. Stevie Williams right before Gotthardpass had spent 3111 kilojoules for 3:45h with 14.09 kj/kg/h, but most of the intensity was added by a previous climb.

With little recovery between the climbs, the riders in the peloton were fatigued. Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale climbing duo Felix Gall and Valentin Paret-Peintre accelerated early on the climb, but both attacks were caught. A strong tailwind made the attacking easier, but the UAE Emirates had a strong mountain train. Isaac del Toro and Wilco Kelderman crashed going up Gotthardpass, but even with a crash, Del Toro was the one to launch Adam Yates with 4 kilometres remaining on the climb.

Yates immediately opened a gap and chased after the last breakaway survivor Torstein Træen who had a huge lead over the peloton. Yates possibly did the best climbing performance of the season excluding Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard and a Top 5 effort overall behind Pogačar’s Giro d’Italia and Volta a Catalunya performances and Jonas Vingegaard effort in Tirreno-Adriatico. Yates pushed 6.58 ᵉW/Kg for 21:20 min on Gothardpass. His performance was made more impressive by the average altitude of 1797 metres above sea level. Skjelmose lost 28 seconds to him with 6.41 ᵉW/Kg, while Yates’ teammate Almeida drafted the Danish champion with 6.31 ᵉW/Kg.

Primož Roglič won another mountain top finish in Critérium du Dauphiné, increasing his lead in the GC. His teammates from Bora-Hansgrohe controlled everything in the leading group, with Aleksandr Vlasov pulling in the second half of the climb.

It was the second consecutive mountain day in Dauphiné with a hard finish up the steep Samoëns 1600 (9.9 km, 9.0%) climb. With multiple longer climbs included in the course, it would more fatigue before the final climb compared to yesterday’s ‘easier’ stage. Derek Gee before Samoëns 1600 spent 4,046 kilojoules for 4:05h which is 13.97 kj/kg/h. A long and hard day in the saddle.

Bora-Hansgrohe took the pacing duty on the last climb with Matteo Sobrero, Jai Hindley and Aleksandr Vlasov who were supporting the race leader Primož Roglič. Sepp Kuss, Jack Haig, Pavel Sivakov got dropped early in the first half as the climb was very steep. Remco Evenepoel had a worse day than yesterday and was struggling with 6 km to go, continuing the climb at his own pace. Vlasov was an incredibly strong domestique for Roglič, pacing the GC group until the finish for multiple kilometres and closed down Giulio Ciccone and Santiago Buitrago’s attacks. In the final kilometre, Oier Lazkano was still in the elite group of climbers and accelerated, but Matteo Jorgenson closed his attack. Roglič was patient all day and won the bunch sprint, increasing his lead in the overall classification.

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Roglič won with 6.25 ᵉW/Kg for 31:50 min on Samoëns 1600. Jorgenson, Ciccone, Lazkano and Gee all did 6.24 – 6.25 ᵉW/Kg. Lazkano with his northern classics rider body managed to stay with the group all the way, despite strong climbers such as Mikel Landa dropping early. Aleksandr Vlasov who pulled the most, lost 14 seconds to Roglič and pushed 6.29 ᵉW/Kg on the climb. Remco Evenepoel was dropped early and with 5.99 ᵉW/Kg lost 1:46 min to Roglič, sliding down to 6th position in the GC.

Primož Roglič won on Le Collet d’Allevard mountain top finish, beating Giulio Ciccone in the final meters. The race leader Remco Evenepoel could not follow the top climbers and lost his leader’s jersey.

It was the first big mountain top finish in the 2024 Criterium du Dauphiné. Many GC favourites crashed in the previous wet stages, such as Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel, while Juan Ayuso did not start today after hurting his hip. Le Collet d’Allevard (11.23 km, 8.5%) was a perfect w/kg test for the climbers before the Tour de France as it was over 30 minutes and consistently steep after a relatively easy stage.

The peloton did the steep part of the Col du Granier climb at 5.7 ᵉW/Kg for 18 minutes. Neilson Powless before the final climb spent 2,934 kilojoules for 3:48h, which is only 11.67 kj/kg/h – an easy mountain stage by WorldTour and Dauphiné standards.

INEOS set a high tempo from the base of Allevard with Joshua Tarling, Omar Fraile, Jonathan Castroviejo and Michal Kwiatkowski for their team leader Carlos Rodriguez. His teammate Laurens de Plus attacked with 4.9 km to go and Aleksandr Vlasov bridged to him. Mikel Landa in the GC group paced for the race leader Remco Evenepoel who won the time trial, but after the horrific Basque Country crash, seems to be still on his way back to full fitness.

Later Giulio Ciccone accelerated from the GC group with Primož Roglič, Derek Gee, Carlos Rodriguez and Matteo Jorgenson following the Italian, while Evenepoel was doing damage control. They bridged to the leading group where Vlasov started pacing for his teammate Roglič and dropped everyone except Ciccone. Roglič despite crashing twice in earlier stages won the sprint.

Primož Roglič averaged 6.45 ᵉW/Kg for 31:38 min on Le Collet d’Allevard as the conditions were ideal for a top performance. Ciccone, Vlasov, Gee and Jorgenson pushed 6.39 – 6.44 ᵉW/Kg, doing their career-best pure climbing efforts at least at such a high level race. After a successful Giro d’Italia 2023, the Canadian beast Derek Gee looks even stronger before the Tour de France and will have a good chance to win a stage from the breakaways. Evenepoel lost 42 seconds to Roglič with 6.31 ᵉW/Kg for 32:20 min.

19-year-old Marion Bunel dominated in one of the hardest climbing races in the women’s calender, beating Evita Muzic and Julie Bego on the mighty Chamrousse climb.

Evita Muzic after her performance in La Vuelta Femenina and Vuelta a Burgos against Demi Vollering was the big favourite to win Alpes Gresivaudan Classic. She won the first two editions of the race in 2022 and 2023. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Marion Bunel and Julie Bego were some of the other strong climbers on the start list. Chamrousse (18.3 km, 6.1%) is a un unusually long climb in women’s cycling and would be a perfect test for pure climbers as most of the climbs in the WorldTour calendar are below 12 minutes long. This side of Chamrousse was not as steep as the more popular side used in the 2001 and 2014 Tour de France, but still it was hard enough to make huge gaps.

The race until the final climb was already extremely exhausting for the riders in the peloton. Evita Muzic spent 1,989 kilojoules in 3:00h, which is 13.46 kj/kg/h. It is a very intensive day for women’s cycling.

With 12.8 km to go Cofidis 19-year-old climber Julie Bego made a big move on the steep section of the climb. Bunel and Cavallar followed her, with Muzic later bridging to the leading group. With 9 km to go Bunel attacked and no one responded immediately from Muzic, Bego and Cavallar.

Bunel performed well in the Alicante training camp in the winter and later finished 5th on the Jebel Hafeet stage in the UAE Tour. The lightweight French climber benefited from the hard climbing course in Alpes Gresivaudan Classic and blew away her competition with a strong performance.

Bunel averaged 4.62 ᵉW/Kg for 54:15 min on Chamrousse from Saint-Martin-d’Uriage. There have not been many long climbs in women’s races, but it is definitely a great effort at age 19 after three hours in the peloton. An even steeper climb would have benefited her even more. Muzic and Bego lost 1:38 and 1:40 min, pushing 4.40 ᵉW/Kg.

20-year-old French talent Lenny Martinez won his fifth climbing one-day race in 2024, winning the Mercan’Tour Classic Alpes-Maritimes against good WorldTour level riders.

Mercan’Tour Classic is one of the rare climbing one-day races, which always has a strong start list. With Groupama-FDJ duo Lenny Martinez and David Gaudu taking the start, another team stopping the French team from winning would be tough. With 5,006 climbing metres in 167.5 kilometres of racing it is a good test for climbers. Col de la Coulliole (15.8 km, 7.3%) has been the decisive climb in the past editions or where most of the peloton gets shredded. With consistent 7% gradients, it is a perfect climb for w/kg performances.

Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider Clement Berthet spent 3,230 kilojoules for 3:49h before Coulliole, which is 13.29 kj/kg/h. The racing was not that intense for such a mountainous one day race, but the longer climbs still hurt the legs of the riders. Chris Froome in his first race since Tirreno-Adriatico was in the peloton until Couillole but was dropped with 26 km to go and finished 47th, losing 17:40 min. Israel-Premier Tech had brought a strong squad with Stephen Williams, George Bennett and Matthew Riccitello. Surprisingly, there were two crashes on the climb, involving Lenny Martinez, Lukas Nerurkar, Guillaume Martin and Ivan Sosa.

Martinez despite crashing still was the strongest rider on the climb and pushed 5.98 ᵉW/Kg for 42:48 min. Clement Berthet was the second fastest with 5.96 ᵉW/Kg for 42:54 min, while Sosa, Bennett, Vanhoucke and Riccitello group lost 19 seconds on the climb to Martinez with 5.90 ᵉW/Kg. It was a tailwind on climb but the Richie Porte record was not broken. Porte in the 2017 Paris-Nice Stage 7 did Coulloile in 41:51 min, averaging 6.15 ᵉW/Kg – 57 seconds faster than Martinez in 2024. In Paris-Nice 2023 and MercanTour Classic 2022, the climbing times were over a minute slower than in 2024.