As it happened: Adam Yates boosts lead with solo win in Tour de Suisse stage 5

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse.

The stage is due to get underway at 1304 local time for the neutralised section, then 1311, racing proper starts.

Two confirmed non-starters so far, former Tour de Suisse winner Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and teammate Alberto Bettiol, briefly the GC leader early this week.  The full story, courtesy of James Moultrie, is here:

Richard Carapaz and Alberto Bettiol abandon Tour de Suisse but 'goal remains the Tour de France

As for those who remain in the Tour de Suisse peloton, here's what's on today's menu of racing:

Km 0: Start: Ambrì

Km 8.7: Climb: Cat.2: Ronco, 5.9kms, 7.4%

Km 31.3 Climb: Cat.1: Carì, 7.6kms, 10%

Km 127.8 - 128.8: Golden Kilometre time bonuses

Km 134.5: Sprint time bonuses

Km 147.5: Climb: Cat.1: Carì, 10.5kms, 8%

Km 148.6: Finish: Carì

And a reminder of our raceclassification  leaders:

Overall: Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates)

Points: Bryan Coquard (Cofidis)

BYR: Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek)

Mountains:  Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious)

Teams: UAE Team Emirates

This is a very mountainous Tour de Suisse even by Tour de Suisse standards, with no fewer than four summit finishes in four days. The total of overall climbing metres today is 3, 206 metres, a fraction less than the 3,551 metres of stage 4 on already raced Wednesday up to the Gotthardpass or the 3,365 metres they will tackle on stage 6. Small mercies and all that.

Riders are now in the neutralised zone. They've got a couple of kilometres to cover before racing proper gets underway.

As per the official race website there has been a Tour de Suisse stage finish before in Carì, back in 2016. Tackling the same final climb on stage 5, BMC's Darwin Atapuma now retired, held off the peloton of race favourites to claim the last win of his career, Pierre Latour, now with TotalEnergies, moved into the overall lead. Later that year Atapuma led the Vuelta a Espana for four days.

If you want the full trip down memory lane re that year's Tour de Suisse stage, look no further than here:

Tour de Suisse: Atapuma wins stage 5

Meanwhile back in 2024, racing is underway in stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse. Only 148.6 kilometres to go.

Sporza.be reports another DNS to add to Richard Carapaz and Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost) for stage 5. Jacopo Guarnieri (Lotto-Dstny) also not on the startline today.

An eight-rider break already takes about a 40 second gap on the peloton just as we reach the foot of the first climb of the day. Names coming shortly.

They are Damien Howson (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Simone Velasco and Alexey Lutsenko (both Astana), Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Ben Zwiehoff (Bora Hansgrohe), Johan Price Pejtersen (Bahrain Victorious) and Lawson Craddock (Jayco-AlUla). 

The leaders hit the lower slopes of the first climb of the day, the  Cat.2: Ronco (5.9kms, 7.4%) and the only recently formed break already starts to split apart.

 Johan Price Pejtersen (Bahrain Victorious) and Lawson Craddock (Jayco-AlUla) both lose contact with the group on the Ronco climb. Six riders ahead now.

And the six become five as the race nears the summit of the Ronco.  Simon Guglielmi (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) also dropped.

There's just 30 seconds between the stage's 5 leaders and the pack as they hit the top of the Ronco climb and begin a fast descent.

Dry weather, by the way, with temperature at the start a cool-ish 16 degrees celsius. Good news particularly considering the descent off the Ronco is reportedly very technical.

A photo of Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) getting an interview at today's start. A stage winner last year both in Suisse and in the Tour de France over the brutally difficult Col du Loze, Gall wouldn't sniff at getting another top result today.

There's been a re-arranging of the front of the stage ahead over the Ronco and on the fast descent, with some riders falling back and others bridging across, and we've now got a five-man move ahead:   Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), Ben Zwiehoff (Bora Hansgrohe), Stevie Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) and Damien Howson (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) currently a lead of around  50 seconds on the pack.

125 kilometres to go

Nans Peters (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) and Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep) are chasing the five ahead, and are about 20 seconds back. Peloton at a further 30 seconds.

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) picked up maximum points at the summit of that cat.2 climb, the Ronco, by the way.

And we're now fast approaching the second of three classified climbs of the day, the Cat.1 Carì, (7.6kms, 10%). Much harder than the first ascent, the Ronco, and likely we'll see some more significant reshuffling of the front of the race. 

Vervaeke and Peters have made it into the break on the lower slopes of the Caro.

So the break now consists of Axel Laurance (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), Ben Zwiehoff (Bora Hansgrohe), Stevie Williams (Israel-Premier Tech), Damien Howson (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team), Louis Vervaeke (Soudal-QuickStep) and Nans Peters (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale). Only one non-WorldTour rider in that group of seven.

Well-known as a climbing domestique, Vervaeke is the best-placed on GC of the seven, currently just 2:25 off Adam Yates, and 25th overall.

Ineos Grenadiers are working hard on the climb, the Cat.1 Carì , to close back in on the breakaway.

Only Lutsenko manages to keep out of the clutches of the peloton as the summit of the climb looms, and he's only doing so by a handful of seconds. 

Fun while it lasted: here's a shot of the early break, prior to getting sucked back in by the peloton.

Lutsenko pushes out his advantage to 15 seconds.

The current Kazakh National Champion and 2020 Tour de France stage winner reaches the summit of the Carì ahead of the pack and takes maximum mountain points. A long descent is now about to start.

For those wondering why there are two climbs with the same name, Carì , today, it's because the peloton reach the finish town ( Carì ) going up two different sides of the same mountain.
So they aren't the same climbs, even if they are both ranked as being cat.1 and  the finish town, Carì, is the same place and both climbs have the same name. Simple.

(Just to make matters even more confusing, the peloton is currently going down the same climb of  Carì that they'll come up later, on the southern side of the mountain range in this part of Switzerland, for the final ascent of the day.)

The first abandon of the day now reported to add to the three DNS on the results sheet for today: Jordi Warlop (Soudal-QuickStep).

105 kilometres to go

Lutsenko is caught, about 20 riders in the front group.

Race leader Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) is in that front group of 20 riders, incidentally.

The front group, which contains most of the main favourites as well as Yates, swells in number on the descent of the Carì to around 30 riders.

And here is a shot of Adam Yates during this early part of the stage in his race leader's jersey.

As we come off the Carì, a four rider break emerges from the lead group of 30: the tireless Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), Stevie Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) Nans Peters (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) -  also in the first move of the day -  and Colombian climber Einer Rubio (Movistar).

Still to come on today's stage: 

 Km 127.8 - 128.8: Golden Kilometre: time bonuses

Km 134.5: Sprint: time bonus

Km 147.5: Climb: Cat.1: Carì, 10.5kms, 8%

Km 148.6: Finish: Carì

Johannes Staune-Mittet (Visma-Lease A Bike) is trying to bridge across to the four ahead, as the big leading chase group continues to gain more riders and is now roughly 40 strong.

Staune-Mittet makes it across to the break of four.

The break of five now has a lead of roughly 1:40.

74 kilometres to go

1:40 for the five riders ahead. UAE lead the chase.

A reminder that the five riders in the break are:
Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan)
Stevie Williams (Israel-Premier Tech)
Nans Peters (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale)
Johannes Staune-Mittet (Visma-Lease A Bike)
Einer Rubio (Movistar)

Rubio is the best placed of the five on GC at 2:23 while Williams is at 2:49.

The riders are heading along a very flat, broad valley road right now, with no climbs until the final ascent. UAE are chasing hard in the peloton.  1:40 the gap.

A generic shot of the peloton on the descent from the Carì. 

The bunch is now up to around 70 riders, incidentally, with plenty of riders rejoining after the descent off the Carì. No reports of any favourites missing from their number.

49 kilometres to go

2:00 the gap

The lined-out form of the front of the bunch shows just how fast they are moving on the long approach road to the final ascent of the Carì. 

The breakaway has moved off the main road onto a section of backroad, the first part of which is being used a feed zone. The roads are much narrower now.

The gap is still ticking over at around 1:35, which suggests that somebody in the bunch is keen to fight for the stage win rather than a repeat scenario of stage 4, won by Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) from the break. The key question is - who?

A shot of the speeding peloton. 

40 kilometres to go

Back onto the broader roads, the gap still hovering around 1:46.

Of those in the break, Einer Rubio (Movistar) is the best-known climber, with mountain stage wins in the 2023 UAE Tour and the Giro d'Italia and a seventh place in this year's Giro as well. No victories this year yet, but maybe he'll be aiming to set the record straight today.

Williams is having a breakthrough year this season, with wins in the Tour Down Under and Fleche Wallonne two of the highlights. One of his earliest landmark triumphs, though, came in the opening stage of the Tour de Suisse in 2022.

Tour de Suisse: Stephen Williams wins stage 1, takes first leader's jersey

Collaboration between the five ahead has been pretty smooth up til now, but there is beginning to be a bit of hesitation. The prospect of a 10.5 kilometre final climb surely has nothing to do with that.

Some seriously long turns from the three UAE domestiques, one of them Marc Hirschi, at the front of the bunch, followed by a delegation of Ineos Grenadiers , with Yates tucked in between another pocket of UAE riders around 20 back in the line. 1:19 the gap.

25 kilometres to go

Well before the climb officially begins, the road is beginning to curve gently but steadily upwards and the gap for our five leaders is beginning to curve gently bud steadily downwards. 1:16 the gap

The stage has done 2,000 metres of vertical climbing, according to the official race website, so there's a mite over 1,200 left to go. In 22 kilometres, that's a fair old amount.

Staune-Mittet clips off the front of the break to claim the first of three intermediate sprints. Einer Rubio follows him in second, Nans Peters in third.

After their monster turns the UAE trio on the front of the peloton are looking tired as the road begins to rear uphill a little more steeply.

20 kilometres to go

Rubio moves ahead of Staune-Mittet to claim the second of three intermediate sprints in quick succession, and the break looks to be falling apart...

One final full feed zone before the last climb of the day begins.

Watched by a hefty detachment of Ineos riders just behind them, UAE are setting down a searing pace now as they chase down the break.

Or what's left of the break. Only Lutsenko, Rubio and Staune-Mittet in the head of the race, with Peters fighting hard to regain contact. 1:32 the gap.

The UAE troops storm past Williams in pursuit of the four remaining riders from the break of the [second half of the] day.

A flick of the elbow from Lutsenko for Staune-Mittet to come through and keep the break's pace as high as possible. The Kazakh National Champion has been out front all day, right from the first climb of the stage, and is presumably feeling the pace.

A reminder of what's left in store for the peloton on stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse:

Km 147.5: Climb: Cat.1: Carì, 10.5kms, 8%

Km 148.6: Finish: Carì

13 kilometres to go

1:04 the gap. After a lack of collaboration during the rapid-fire succession of hotspot sprints, the four riders left in the break are still trying to eke out their advantage for as long as possible

A change in shape for the bunch which spreads across the road a little as the final climb approaches. UAE have fallen back and there's a line of Ineos riders keeping the pace high on the left hand side, with Visma-Lease A Bike doing the same on the right.

And here is the line of Visma-Lease A Bike riders. They'll be keen to see what their young leader Cian Uijtdebroeks can achieve today.

11.5 kilometres go

The climb hasn't even started, technically, before Rubio makes a last-ditch effort to stay clear.

500 metres later though, he's caught. Peloton all together - but for how long?

Ineos Grenadiers make a purposeful move to the front of the bunch. They'll be racing for Egan Bernal, fourth overall at 49 seconds and a former Tour de Suisse winner back in 2019.

10 kilometres to go

UAE post a lone rider at the front of the Ineos-led string. Yates is lying about fifth rider back, looking comfortable.

Maybe just 40 riders left now in the UAE/Ineos-led bunch. And we've still got nine kilometres of climbing left to go.

King of the Mountains and Wednesday's winner Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious)  amongst those reported dropped.

The peloton are racing on Switzerland[s typically well-surfaced, broad mountain roads for now. Ineos take over on the front.

Oscar Rodríguez putting in the hard yards for Ineos on the front of the much-reduced bunch.

Eight kilometres to go

Attack by young American Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) and Matteo Badilatti (Q36.5)

A few hundred metres further on and Riccitello goes clear.

6.5 kilometres to go

The UAE-led train of riders, heading by young Mexican Isaac del Toro, quickly sweep past the American. Yates just behind his teammate in second place.

Just 15 to 20 riders  in the front group as the race hits the half-way point of the final climb of the day.

Del Toro swings off and now it's Almeida, second overall on GC, working for Yates. Meantime Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek(, last year's winner and third overall, is dropped.

Five kilometres to go

Egan Bernal and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) are right behind Adam Yates as Almeida continues to lay down a blisteringly steady pace.

Another raise in the pace by Almeida and this time it's Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe), second in the Tour de Suisse two years ago, who drops out of the running. Followed by Pidcock.

Five riders left in the front group now - Almeida, Yates, Bernal, Enric Mas and Riccitello.

3 kilometres to go

Almeida is surely reaching the end of his strength now as he continues to keep hammering away at the front of the five-strong lead group. 

The final climb technically finishes at 1 kilometre to go, don't forget, so there's only about 1.5 kilometres of climbing left.

By keeping things together for now at least and with so many riders dropped, Almeida and Yates are cementing their top two places on the overall.

Yates was second on stage 4 and did a searing final ride up the Gotthardpass so could well be extra motivated to go for the stage win today. For now, though, the five remain locked together.

Finally 1.7 kilometres from the line, Almeida swings over and Yates moves away.

Mas tries to follow him and brings Bernal back up with him so there are three riders on the front now. 

Almeida pounds on behind with  Riccitello on his wheel about 50 yards further back. But the stage is down to the three ahead.

Another surge from Yates, 1 kilometre from the line and he and Mas shed Bernal.

Meanwhile Almeida has dropped  Riccitello and is gaining ground on the Colombian.

800 metres to go, and although the climb is supposedly over, it's still rising. Yates makes another, almost imperceptible acceleration and drops Mas. He's on his way to the win.

500 metres to go and Yates is into the barriered-off roads now.

Almeida, meanwhile, has come past Bernal and is looking for a top three result as well.

 Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) wins stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse 

Second is Almeida, five seconds back, with Bernal coming home in third, around 16 seconds down.

After an impressive collective display of strength by UAE, Yates has now boosted his lead overall, Almeida is also looking good for second overall despite working so hard for the Briton. But Bernal will be very pleased with one of his strongest rides since his comeback began two years ago. if there were any lingering doubts about his Tour de France spot in the Ineos line-up before today, they're surely evaporating fast.

Third overall in the Tour de France last year, this doesn't just bode well forYates for a second time in July. He's already got overall wins in the Volta a Catalunya (2021) and the UAE Tour (2020) and even in the Tour of Turkey way back in 2014, and assuming he goes all the way to winning outright next Sunday, a victory in the Tour de Suisse would sit very snugly in that week-long stage race palmares.

Some first words from the winner and race leader, who when asked about UAE's dominating ride all the way through to the final climb and then on the mountain itself, agrees that
"It was a really strong performance. Right at the end there Joao [Almeida] was putting down a crazy pace, I only had to follow for four or five ks. When I attacked he was still there, so he's obviously in super great shape,and  the team is super-motivated for the rest of the week."
"It's a good position to be in to have two guys in such great shape. We're both co-leaders, we have been since the start and so far it's working out well."
"It wasn't easy for us. Ineos set down a superhard pace on the first two climbs to try and flick us, but we came back as a team and we came back and got organised in the final."
"If Joao is stronger than me then he can win. He showed today he can put the pace on and there were only four or five guys left at the end. So if he has the same legs for the next few days, for sure he he can take the win."
Whoever wins, it's clear Tadej Pogacar can rely on some stunning support for the Tour.
 

CN's full report is here:

Tour de Suisse: Adam Yates extends lead with dominant stage 5 summit finish win

It almost goes without saying that Adam Yates is now also in control of the mountains classification, ousting stage 4 winner  Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious) from the top spot. He's now in charge of the points classification, too, ahead of previous leader Bryan Coquard (Cofidis.) UAE keep command of the teams classification but young American Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) has moved ahead of last year's overall winner Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) in the BYR ranking.

No change in the top two spots on GC of course, but Bernal is now up a place in third overall, Enric Mas has moved up to fourth and Matthew Riccitello is lying in fifth.

And here's a shot of Adam Yates claiming the stage win, his first since he took a double triumph in the Tour of Oman early this sprint, simultaneously clinching the final summit finish at Green Mountain and claiming outright victory.

That just about wraps it up for live coverage of stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse today. There'll be more tomorrow, but throughout the evening you can keep updated with news, analysis and our main report here on Cyclingnews.