Tour de Suisse Stage 5 Preview
- Rúben Silva
- Jun 18, 2019
- 3 min read
Elia Viviani took a strong win in the sprint in the fourth stage of Suisse, coming back from what was a bad Giro. The stage wasn't very hard in terms of pace, Bora controlled all day long including the final climb that saw no team wanting to push the pace neither attack. Sunweb helped to control the attacks that came mainly by Kung and Mohoric in the final kilometers, but it was a pure sprint finish in the end with Deceuninck delivering the Italian to a strong victory.
Positive: Deceuninck raced perfectly, didn't have the pressure, they helped Viviani stay in contact in the rough patches and didn't work, had the strongest leadout in the end that was vital for the win. Stuyven, Vanmarcke and Dewulf nice surprises in the top places despite a messy finish.
Negative: Geraint Thomas had to abandon after a crash in the latter parts of the stage. He didn't look injured, but had some road rash and a cut to the eyebrow, looked more like a precaution move but Thomas is getting a far from ideal preparation for the Tour even if he isn't hurt.
The Route
There's 2700 meters of climbing in this stage, this another one where chaos will come and a breakaway will surely make it to the line. The start of the stage is quite hard and will allow really strong riders to get to the front.
And from there on there's a lot of rolling terrain where chasing is hard and the riders in front can take advantage. This is one that favours the power riders, the Sattelpass climb near the finale is an ideal place for the decisive attacks to come, and the rolling climbs afterwards are solid to establish gaps. If the peloton fights for the stage there's sprinters who can take it, who can climb these ascents well, but late attacks are to be expected as a powerful and organized chase is very unlikely.
The Weather
A slight breeze only, but in a tailwind fashion for the bulk of the day, it suits the scenario of a breakaway making it, it all looks pointed towards that.
The Favourites
Well as it's been the case lately, there is a chance the sprinter teams are able to take something out of the day, it's hard but so are riders like Sagan, Matthews and Trentin. Yes I'm mentioning them everyday for the same reason but the truth is the route forces me to do so, it's the third stage where the format favours that type of rider.
Stefan Kung, Matej Mohoric were very agressive today, they may even try to get themselves on a breakaway, but that would of course cause a reaction in the peloton, at least in Bora as they have the interest on keeping the yellow jersey. I'd like to throw some names that I could see in the breakaway and taking a win, Marc Hirschi and Nicholas Roche, I imagine Sunweb will try to put men in front to pressure Bora but also as they can pull it off in such day. Sven Erik Bystrom, Koen Bouwman, Dries Devenyns and Simon Pellaud.
Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and Ivan Garcia Cortina have been very constant so far, they are good outsider pics for such a stage, and it would be very nice to see them winning, but will be hard. John Degenkolb a possibility too, not to be ignored.
Some classics riders have been looking pretty sharp, specially with the nationals and the Tour coming up, the Belgians Jasper Stuyven, Greg van Avermaet and Sep Vanmarcke will be under my eye as they should like a lumpy stage like this. And well, have some Kasper Asgreen aswell as there's never enough of him.
Prediction Time
⭐ Degenkolb, Rensburg, Kung, Mohoric, Stuyven, Vanmarcke, van Avermaet
Going for another long shot, with Simon Pellaud today. Despite racing in the Continental he's in a level above so, racing for the national team he already won the mountain classification in Romandie but as since won the Flèche Ardennaise and the Tour de la Mirabelle, smaller races but clearly show the man is on form. The whole national team has been very agressive so far and strong aswell, tomorrow should be no exception and Pellaud is capable of being in front, trying to take the stage and the KOM classification.
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