Soler struggles at San Gottardo; Anacona into early break
21 June 2019

Tour de Suisse (st. 7)

Catalan suffers against strong pace from biggest favourites into Tremola's cobbles, concedes more than 3' against GC leader Bernal (INS). Movistar now on top of team GC; Betancur 11th today, 13th overall.

Egan Bernal (INS) grabbed the bull by the horns into the final kilometers of the San Gottardo climbs, end of the marathon stage seven in the 2019 Tour de Suisse -216km starting at Unterterzen-, reinforcing a GC lead he will have to defend at Saturday’s Goms ITT, with Rohan Dennis (TBM) just 41″ behind the Colombian.

Anacona during his breakaway. (c) Vincent Kalut / PN / BettiniPhoto

Movistar took over the lead of the team GC in a stage which, nonetheless, was one of suffering for some of its main names. Winner Anacona was able to enter a tough-to-form early break, consolidated at the Cat-2 Flims climb after nearly 60km. However, the Boyacá native lost contact early into the final ascent, caught with about 12km to go by a selected bunch which Héctor Carretero led as Mas and Betancur escorted Marc Soler.

The Catalan wasn’t able to contain the penultimate acceleration from the GC contenders and ran out of energy at the last 3km uphill, losing more than three minutes to drop off the GC top-ten he brilliantly held on to on Thursday. Carlos Betancur was, in turn, 11th in the stage – just over 1′ behind Bernal – and now located in 13th overall, half a minute behind tenth place.

Cover picture (c): BettiniPhoto