The road to the Tour is a sort of large mosaic, whose pieces are emerging in all the races in June. And if the Dauphiné has reported the names of Roglic and Jorgenson, Carlos Rodriguez, evenepoel and Buitrago, il Tour of Switzerland He's still looking for his pieces. Today, the first uphill finish on the Gotthard gave a nice shake-up to the overall standings. The stage was won by Torstein Træen, a 28-year-old Norwegian., who after seven seasons at Uno X (four in the professional team and three in the professional team), made the big leap to the WorldTour. A great intuition from the managers of the Team Bahrain Victorious, since the boy had not yet won a single race, nor had he distinguished himself with any sensational actions as a domestique. Hats off! Meanwhile, behind him today the battle between Yates and Skjelmose heated up.
"I didn't think it was possible," the Norwegian said, "because this morning I didn't think I had any legs. Then, During the escape, I started thinking about everything that happened to me in the last few years and, of course, about Gino (Mader, who passed away last year at the Tour de Suisse, ed.). I just hoped I could hold out, and luckily I did. The last kilometer seemed never-endingYates was coming quickly. It wasn't asphalt, but cobblestones, and there was a headwind.
Winning the stage dedicated to Gino was incredible. We all miss him. Personally I didn't know him because I wasn't in this team last year, but I feel how much he is missed.I'm honored to have won this stage for him, especially with his family here. It means so much..."
Yates' shots
Behind his back, Adam Yates almost made a great comebackThe Englishman attacked when perhaps there was too little left to the finish and at the end he was unable to recover the last 23 seconds: when he set off the fugitive was travelling beyond the 3 minute mark. Moreover, at 58 kilos, when he put on his high carbon wheels on the cobblestones that lead up to the Gotthard Pass, which has the amusing nickname "Tremola," his performance became a bit disjointed. The Briton still took the yellow jersey.
"It was a good stage," he said, "even though the plan today wasn't to attack. After checking the finishers, we wanted to try to conserve some energy. But during the climb I felt good and so I decided to put the guys in front and make a good paceI attacked just to see if anyone would follow me, I wasn't very confident on the cobblestone section. I don't like roads like that, because when you weigh less than 60 kilos, you get tossed around and it's quite difficult to find the right tractionSo I just plugged in first to see. And since no one followed me, I decided to continue.
«I think tomorrow's climb suits me a little better. It's a little steeper, but from now on every day you reach the top of a mountain, even the time trial has a finish at the top. So the hard part is about to come. It's going to be a very tough week, but the team seems strong and motivated. So I hope that in the end we will say that it will have been a good week."
Skjelmose's answers
Tomorrow's stage Yates is talking about includes the arrival in Carì, at an altitude of 1.636, at the head of a 10,2 kilometre climb with an average gradient of 8 percentThe standings are still tight, but today he moved well behind Yates. the outgoing winner Mattias Skjelmose.
“I think we raced well today,” Skjelmose said. “As a team, we did what we had to do. The guys believed in me and did a great job to keep the situation under control for a long time, Jacopo (Moscow, ed.) in particularYates' attack was violent. If I'd been on his wheel, I might have tried to follow him. He went fast anyway, but I always felt like I had good legs. so I decided to wait for the right moment to force the pace and minimize the lossesI'm happy with my performance.
«For me it was the first test in the mountains after taking a break and doing the training camp at altitude. You always arrive at days like this with a bit of doubt, but in the end I felt really good. and that's the most important thing. Even though Yates showed great form today, I feel that the race for the general classification is still openI'm in a good position. We'll have three mountain stages and a time trial to give our chances. We'll give it a try."
Bernal's doubts
Skjelmose has the same gap as Almeida and this could make his life very difficult. The Portuguese and the British, both of them in the jersey UAE Emirates they could easily get it in the way and this adds a touch of spice to the Tour of Switzerland. To give an idea of the strength of the UAE Emirates, let's consider that the two will go to the Tour to act as domestiques for Pogacar!
Today in the wake of Skjelmose and Almeida we also saw Bernal, who lost 12 seconds in the last kilometer aloneThe Colombian is 49 seconds behind in the general classification and it remains to be seen what point he is at. his recovery to his best condition. In recent days he said that If he doesn't feel up to the best, he could give up the TourHard to believe, but worth watching. It feels like the games are just getting started.
