Tour de Suisse: Almeida makes up time on leader Grégoire with stage win

(sda) João Almeida attacked at the Splügen Pass, the main obstacle of the day, and won with a lead of 40 seconds over the first pursuers Oscar Onley and Ben O'Connor.

For the winner of this year's Tour de Romandie, it was already the third stage victory in the Tour de Suisse, after he had won the 6th and 8th stages last year and finished the tour in second place overall behind his teammate Adam Yates, who was absent in Switzerland this year.

In the overall standings, Almeida is still over two minutes behind leader Romain Grégoire. The Frenchman successfully defended the yellow leader's jersey once again and remains 25 seconds ahead of his compatriot Kevin Vauquelin. Another Frenchman, Julian Alaphilippe, captain of the Swiss Tudor team, is now third overall. The best local rider in the overall standings is Jan Christen in 17th place.

Geraint Thomas, who is retiring at the end of the season, was forced to abandon the Tour de Suisse. The 39-year-old Welshman crashed on Tuesday 60 kilometers from the finish of Stage 3 in Heiden, losing more than 15 minutes to the winner, Quinn Simmons. As a precautionary measure ahead of the Tour de France, which begins in three weeks and which he won in 2018, Thomas withdrew from the race before Stage 4, his team Ineos announced.

The queen stage follows on Thursday. Shortly after the start in La Punt, the race crosses the Julier Pass, the pinnacle of this year's Tour at 2,284 meters above sea level. This is followed by the San Bernardino Pass and two shorter, but steeper, climbs to the finish in Santa Maria.