2018 Tour de Suisse Stage 6 Results & Recap
Stage 6 of the 2018 Tour de Suisse is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Kragh Andersen wins stage 6 of Tour de Suisse
After spending almost the entire stage in the breakaway, Sunweb’s Soren Kragh Andersen won today’s stage of the Tour de Suisse ahead of Nathan Haas (Team Katusha - Alpecin) who couldn’t quite match the speed of the Danish rider. Gorka Izagirre (Bahrain - Merida) took third another 24 seconds back.
Richie Porte (BMC) burst out of the GC favorite group on the final climb, showing some incredible form on the lead up to the Tour de France and extending his lead in the overall competition. The Tasmanian is now 32 seconds ahead of Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) and Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb), who retains his lead in the best young rider competition.
“I think that after the amount of work that the team did for me today, I had to do something. I didn’t really expect to take time like that,” Porte said after the stage.” I wasn’t feeling great yesterday but today I had a better day and the team was incredible for me. Each and every one of the guys was really good especially Michi Schär. He rode most of the stage for me. It’s good coming into the Tour. The guys put me in a great position and they looked after me so I am happy with how the day went. This is a dress rehearsal for the Tour de France and it really showed today that we are there. It was good to take a little bit more time on some strong time trialists today. Tomorrow on paper is maybe better for me and I am super motivated.”\n“Allan Peiper said on the radio ‘Richie if you have any gas, you gotta go,’ and I actually thought I had hit out a bit too early but when I heard that they were cracking, I dug in a little bit more. It really hurt but it is nice to take some extra time.”
At the start of the race, almost 20 riders managed to escape: Kregh Andersen, Haas, Izagirre, Gogl, Gautier, Monfort, Sep Vanmarke (EF-Drapac), Rein Taaramae (Direct Energie) Perrig Quemeneur (Direct Energie), Mark Christian (Aqua Blue), Magus Cort Nielsen (Astana), Jan Polanc (UAE), Nicholas Dougall (Dimension Data), Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Maarten Wynants (LottoNL-Jumbo), and Michael Golas (Team Sky).
Quick-Step Floors sent Iljo Keisse and Tim Declercq across a bit later. After 40 kilometres, the group reached the summit of the Furkapass with a four minute advantage. The climb thinned out the lead group slightly and Taaramae decided to attack, but quickly returned to the breakaway on the descent.
With the gap holding at 3:30, it was looking more and more likely the breakaway was going to make it to the finish.
Kragh launched his attack in the closing metres of the stage and held off Haas, while in the GC group, Porte went on the offensive, displaying his superb form and putting more time into his closest rivals.
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