Tour de Suisse (st. 5)

Anacona, Mas, Soler, Betancur all within top-20 overall before four key days in Suisse; Viviani (DQT) wins another bunch sprint in Einsiedeln.

The sprinters again owned Wednesday’s finish, theoretically a tough one for them en route to Einsiedeln, on day five of the 2019 Tour de Suisse (177km), as they overcame the final two climbs to contest a cobbled finish with identical result to Tuesday’s: Elia Viviani (DQT) as day’s winner, Peter Sagan (BOH) stronger in the lead.

The Movistar Team got safely through the final day of the ‘transition’ between the opening ITT and the mountain stages which, together with Saturday’s second time trial in Goms, should define the GC outcome. Anacona -now 10th overall, +40″-, Mas, Soler, Betancur -all four within the top-20-, Roelandts and Barbero finished inside a main peloton that should finally split on Thursday as the riders tackle the first big mountain.

A really short stage six, 120 km in length, will lead the Tour de Suisse peloton to the top of the Flumserberg (Cat-1), 8.5 kilometers at 9%, which should bring forward the candidates to win the race on Sunday.

Cover picture (c): BettiniPhoto