Tour de Suisse: Carapaz wins stage 5 summit finish at Leukerbad

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Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) took victory and the race lead on stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse, outsprinting Jakob Fuglsang (Astana-Premier Tech) in the dying metres on the summit finish at Leukerbad.

Fuglsang had attacked 18 kilometres out on the penultimate climb of the day but was caught three kilometres out after Carapaz had flown away from the main GC group. The Ecuadorian bridged a 40-second gap in no time at all and immediately jumped on the front to keep his rivals distanced.

Carapaz led out the sprint before Fuglsang jumped 200 metres out on the uphill finish. The Dane looked good for the win until Carapaz jumped around the outside inside the final 25 metres. What was his first win of 2021 saw him move into his first race leader's jersey of the year, too.

Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) led the chase group across the line 39 seconds later, meaning that – after time bonuses had been factored in – Carapaz held the overall lead by 26 seconds over Fuglsang as Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) initially dropped to third. However, the world champion was given a 20-second penalty for taking an illegal feed in the final kilometres and he is now fourth overall, 53 seconds back, while Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) takes over third, 38 seconds back.

"I'm really happy. It's something we've been working on all week," Carapaz said after the stage. "We knew it was a special day. We wanted to think about the general classification of course and the possibility of winning a stage was there. I did both so I'm happy.

"We knew there was a lot of people interested in the general classification. It was a launchpad for us. We were thinking about the general classification. I made my perfect attack and that was it.

"We're here. We came thinking about preparing for the tour. Of course, we wanted to try and win this. We know the main objective is the Tour but if we can win this it's good."

How it unfolded

The fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse marked a switch to tougher territory, packing two big climbs into the final 40 kilometres of the 175.2-kilometre stage, including the climb to the summit finish at Leukerbad.

First, though, came the first-category climb of the Col du Pillon right from the off, followed up by a long period in the valley. The third-category Varenstrasse – 138 kilometres in – provided a taster for the closing climbs – Erschmatt (8km at 8.4 per cent), and Leukerbad.

With climbing from the start, it was no surprise to see riders attempting to jump away to make the break early on. Jake Stewart (Groupama-FDJ) led an early abortive move, but it wasn't until the descent of the Pillon where the move would be made.

Race leader Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) had been fourth over the top behind a move led by Gavin Mannion (Rally Cycling), with the Dutchman pushing on down the descent. He was joined by Sergio Samitier (Movistar) and Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain Victorious).

The trio flew down the descent, building a gap of a minute over the peloton as they reached the valley. The action wasn't over, though, as Switzerland's Claudio Imhof jumped away from the peloton in pursuit of the break on the flat roads.

Having made his move after 45 kilometres of racing, Imhof didn't take long to get across, joining to make it four out front less than five kilometres later. Back in the peloton, Ineos Grenadiers and Deceuninck-QuickStep controlled the peloton at a maximum gap of 3:30 behind the breakaway.

The pan-flat roads towards Sion offered little further action, with the break's advantage coming down, though no other notable events occurred before Varenstrasse. There, imhof got into trouble almost immediately, dropping back from the quartet before being caught just afterwards, with 36 kilometres to go.

Van der Poel was next to drop back, ending what was effectively a pre-Tour de France training ride at the 30-kilometre mark. Pernsteiner and Samitier would give up the ghost two kilometres later.

On the run to the Erschmatt, which kicked off at 26.5 kilometres to go, Mattia Cattaneo (Deceuninck-QuickStep) led Marc Soler (Movistar) over the intermediate sprint to grab a handful of bonus seconds. After the GC teams had jostled for position before the road angled up, Antwan Tolhoek (Jumbo-Visma) was the first to make a move at just over a kilometre into the climb.

Ineos took it up behind, with Rohan Dennis making the pace. Esteban Chaves (Team BikeExchange) was next to make a move, 23.5 kilometres out, signalling the end of Dennis' work and leaving just Eddie Dunbar to work for Richard Carapaz.

Chaves quickly made his way across to Tolhoek, but didn't stick with the South African for long, pushing on alone four kilometres from the top of the climb. The Colombian gained and gained as the climb went on, enjoying a 55-second margin as he reached the final kilometre.

It was then that the attacks started from the greatly-reduced peloton, with Fuglsang launching a few hundred metres from the top and swiftly bringing the gap down to 30 seconds over the top.

Carapaz, Woods, Alaphilippe, Rigoberto Urán (EF Education-Nippo), Domenico Pozzovivo (Qhubeka Assos), Lucas Hamilton (Team BikeExchange), and Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) were the next group to cross the top, seven seconds after Fuglsang.

Disaster almost struck for Chaves five kilometres into the descent as he misjudged the camber of a corner and rode into a luckily-placed driveway. With his gap reduced by another 10 seconds, he was soon joined by Fuglsang at the 10-kilometre mark.

Further back, Dunbar and the Jumbo-Visma pair of Tolhoek and Sam Oomen had rejoined the leaders, making it eight in the chase 20 seconds down on the leaders as they started the final climb. Fuglsang proved the stronger of the lead duo, pushing away from Chaves with 5.5 kilometres to go with the situation still calm behind.

Tolhoek finished his work for Oomen at the 4.5-kilometre mark, provoking an attack by Woods and then a stronger response by Carapaz. The Ecuadorian sailed away from the group and past Chaves, jumping off in search of Fuglsang, who lay 40 seconds up the road at that point.

He made it across by the three-kilometre mark, with the pair continuing together 20 seconds up on the chasers as the attacks and counters flew behind. Carapaz pushed the pair on into the final kilometre before Fuglsang launched his sprint to the line 250 metres out.

The Dane looked a certainty to hang on and win but Carapaz had the last word, coming around the outside in the dying metres to secure victory.