Tour de Suisse 2016: Stage 6

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January 1 - June 19, Weesen, Switzerland, Road - WorldTour

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Live coverage of stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse, 162.8km from Weesen to Amden with a summit finish. 

 

Hello there, and a warm welcome back to Cyclingnews' live race centre. It's stage 6 of the Tour de Suisse today and we're in for a second successive day in the mountains with another summit finish. 

Here's what we have in store:

It should be a relatively calm start to proceedings, but we have another heft mountain pass on the menu - after the Furka and Gotthard yesteday - followed by a first-category ascent to the line in Amden.

As we pick up the action, the riders have covered around 15km after rolling out of Weesen under yet more rainfall. No breakaway has formed just yet. 

News of another large breakaway - we had 24 yesterday - crackles in over race radio. 15 riders are currently off the front. 

Two non-starters to report today: Oscar Gatto (Tinkoff) and Mathias Frank (IAM).

Philippe Gilbert has made it into the break. We'll bring you the full list as soon as possible. 

These are our 15 breakaway men

130km remaining from 162km

Lieuwe Westra (Astana) has abandoned the race. We'll bring you details when we have them. 

Antwan Tolhoek has figured heavily in the breakaways so far at this Tour de Suisse, and he's wearing the blue jersey as leader of the mountains classification for his efforts. 

You can catch up on yesterday's action with our stage report, complete with results and photos. 

The riders are coming to the top of the first climb of the day. It's not a categorised ascent but they'll nevertheless feel it in the legs. 

122km remaining from 162km

40 kilometres covered in the first hour by the escapees. 

Darwin Atapuma clung on yesterday to scrape a victory from the break, but you have to feel the escapees have a real opportunity today. 

Breakaway member Martin Elmiger is wearing the jersey for best Swiss rider, which is one of the classifications at this race. 

Susan here, taking over for the rest of the stage!

109km remaining from 162km

What does the peloton have to look forward to today? Nothing much fun, that is for certain.About haflway through they get the joy of another high-mountain pass, the Klausen, before – somewhat cruelly – they come back through the start town but have to then take on a steep final climb to Amden.

Have we mentioned yet that it is raining? But what else do we expect this year, it seems like it has done nothing but rain for a month or two.....

But seriously, rain and mountains are not a good combination for cyclists.

89km remaining from 162km

Adam Hansen (Lotto Soudal) led a project for the CPA (Association of Pro Cyclists) and sent a questionnaire to all participants at the Tour de Suisse, concerning safety issues – specifically, the finish of Tuesday’s stage. They got a great response, and 91% said that the finish was much too dangerous. The CPA will pass this along to race organizers and the UCI – let’s hope they take action!

All having refreshed and strengthened themselves, the riders are now starting their long way up the Klausen-Pass, which is 23,3 km long,  with 1437 m of climbing. 

Kanstantin Siutsou of Dimension Data has called it quits in the feed zone. He was part of that big break group yesterday.

AG2R has the joy of leading the chasing peloton as it starts up the Klausen Pass -- have to defend that leader's jersey!

And up they all go!

Halfway up the pass, the gap has actually increased -- now up to 5:25.

Lars Boom is the next to abandon the race.

The top placed rider in the break is Jordi Simon Casulleras (Verva Active-Pro Jet), at 6.25 down. Right now he is about 40 seconds out of the virtual yellow jersey, as race leader Latour is back in the bunch at 5:45.

The gap just keeps on growing! Now up to 5:45!

We had hoped that the weather would improve, but it was of course a foolish hope. The Klausen Pass is offering rain, fog and poor visibility. 

Here are some numbers for you:  50 km to go,15 riders with a 6 minute lead, and it is 5°C at the top of the pass. And raining, of course.

Information is a bit scarce at the moment, we will let you know what is happening as soon as we can!

Antwan Tolhoek was the first over the top, so he has picked up some more good KOM points!

55km remaining from 162km

The top five at the Pass were Tolhoek, Weening, Simon Casulleras, Gilbert and Ligthart.

Manuele Boaro (Tinkoff) has abandoned.

Gilbert and Van der Sande have pulled away from the group. 

The lead group has splittered on this wet descent.

Gilbert and Van der Sande have about 25 seconds on the group.

39km remaining from 162km

There is still another climb to go, as we have a mountaintop finish. The Amden is 8.2 km, with an average gradient of 10.2%. Climb should take just under half an hour. Between the climb and the weather, we can expect some large time gaps at the end of the day.

And another abandonment -- Tiago Machado of Katusha.

We are not seeing any happy faces in the peloton. actually we are not seeing any.

33km remaining from 162km

The yellow jersey group is back at 8:42.

24km remaining from 162km

Gorka Izaguirre has attacked out of the peloton and is now the virtual leader. Simon  is virtual second.

BMC, Sky and Astana are sharing the lead work way back there in the peloton.

Sutterlin, who was in the break group, was ordered back and is now with Igaguirre.

The peloton has made up a little bit of time, now at 7:56.

The two Movistar riders are making their lonely and wet way through No Man's Land.

Lotto Soudal tells us that Tim Wellens has abandoned the race due to saddle sore and back pains.

We still have the big group up front, with Izaguirre and Sutterlin at 3:51 and the yellow jersey group at 7:02.

And just over 10 km to go.

Nico Bruninger, formerly in the lead group, has now been caught by the peloton.

7 km to go, and the climbing has started again! 

Weening has attacked on the final climb!

Weening has pulled away on his way up the final climb. He still has 6km to go.

5km remaining from 162km

Izaguirre now alone. 

Simon Spilak has attacked out of the main group.

Spilak won this race last year.

Izaguirre is not making such good time any more, and the peloton comes ever closer. He still has a good minute and a half on them, though.

It looks like Latour is dropping from his group.

In case you were wondering, it is still raining. Heavily.

2km remaining from 162km

Spilak was unable to stay away and will be caught again momentarily. We can expect more attacks before they hit the finish line.

Weening now has 1:28 over his closest chasers.

Spilak wasn't ready to give up and has attacked again.

We cannot speak of a peloton any more -- just a group of maybe 15 or so.

Izagurre 2:06 behind Weening.

Geraint Thomas is struggling to hold on to his group.

Weening cruises in to the finish line and happily celebrates his victory.

Max Richeze (Etixx-QuickStep), who was in teh break group, takes second place. 

Kelderman takes third, and possibly teh race lead!

No, sorry, Maciej Paterski is third.

Kelderman was fifth, at 4:31 down.

The riders are trickling in to the finish and undoubtedly will do so for a while now.

Latour made up a lot of time on the final climb. He is now sixth overall, only 51 seconds down.

Quite a day for the Dutch here! One Dutch rider won the stage and another has taken over the leader's jersey! 

The top ten today: 

And the new General Classification after Stage 6: 

Be sure to join us again tomorrow for even more climbing! Yes, Friday is actually the Queen Stage, with a finish atop the Rettenbach Glacier in Austria!

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