British rider takes convincing lead on Gotthard Pass
Adam Yates put in a confident climbing display on stage 4 of the Tour de Suisse to take the overall lead as the race hits the decisive stages.
The British climber broke away from the peloton at -5km to go in chase of the remaining breakaway fugitives, without any answer from his closest GC rivals. Yates picked up all but one of the early breakaway with Norwegian Torstein Traeen (Uno X) resisting the chase and winning the stage by a narrow margin of 23”.
Joao Almeida also showed strong climbing form with 4th place on the day and moving up to 2nd on GC, leaving UAE in a commanding position for the upcoming days. Yates will wear the leader’s jersey for stage 5, another hilltop finish from Ambrì to Carì (148.6km).
Yates: “It was a nice stage – it wasn’t so much the plan to attack but more to follow, but on the climb, I felt good and got the guys to set a strong pace and attacked and just came up short of the win. I attacked to see who would follow. I wasn’t super confident about the cobbled section as a lighter guy like myself suffers in that terrain and gets bumped around a bit. I attacked to test the legs, and nobody followed so I pushed on to the line and am delighted to take the leaders jersey.”
Stage 4 results
1.Torstein Traeen (Uno X) 4:10:21
2.Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +23”
3.Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +48”
General Classification after stage 4
1.Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 11:50:08
2.Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +26”
3.Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) s.t
Tomorrow promises to be another testing day for the riders as the peloton sets off from Ambri and immediately tackles the challenging ascent of Ronco, just 8.7km into the race. The challenge intensifies shortly after, with the first of two category one climbs in the race. A brief respite on a stretch of flat terrain will follow, leading to the decisive summit finish at Cari, another category one climb lasting 10.5km with an average gradient of 8.0%. The stage provides another opportunity for UAE Team Emirates to make their mark as Adam Yates looks to defend his leader’s jersey.
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