Thibaut Pinot has won the WorldTour for the first time in almost three years on Saturday. The 32-year-old rider was the strongest breakaway in the seventh stage of the Tour of Switzerland. Jakob Fuglsang lost the leader’s jersey to Sergio Higuita in the tough mountain stage.
Pinot won the fourteenth stage of the Tour de France in 2019 on the famous Col du Tourmalet. The Frenchman seemed a contender for the overall victory in that Tour de France, but due to a muscle injury he had to get off just before Paris.
The climber of Groupama-FDJ subsequently had a number of tough years due to injuries and mental problems. Two months ago, he took his first victory since the 2019 Tour in the Tour of the Alps and on Saturday he proved in Malbun that he can win again at the highest level.
In the group with favorites, Higuita broke away from Geraint Thomas and Fuglsang in the final kilometer. The Colombian finished fourth, at 1.19 minutes from Pinot. Higuita defends a two-second lead over Thomas and nineteen seconds over Fuglsang in the final, flat time trial of 25.6 kilometers in Vaduz on Sunday. Thomas is normally the best time trialist of the three candidates for the overall victory.
The Tour of Switzerland has been struggling with many abandonments due to the corona virus in recent days. On Saturday, BORA-hansgrohe rider Marco Haller and Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) were unable to start due to a positive test. The peloton in the WorldTour race consists of only 81 men.
Ranking Tour of Switzerland
- 1. Sergio Higuita (Col)
- 2. Geraint Thomas (GB) +0.02 min
- 3. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) +0.19 min
- 4. Neilson Powless (US) +1.16 min
- 5. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) +1.37 min
Leading group of 19 gets a big lead
A leading group of nineteen riders marked the last mountain stage of the Tour of Switzerland. After the Lukmanierpass, the escapees’ lead was more than seven minutes, which meant that Mathieu Burgaudeau virtually rode in the yellow leader’s jersey. The Frenchman of TotalEnergies started the stage 4.36 minutes behind Fuglsang in the general classification.
The peloton then slowly came closer through head work by Israel-Premier Tech (Fugslang) and INEOS Grenadiers (Thomas). At the foot of the tough final climb to the ski village of Malbun (12.8 kilometers at 8.8 percent), the lead of the leading group was reduced to more than three minutes.
Ion Izagirre started a solo early on the last col. The Spaniard from Cofidis got half a minute on his first pursuers, but with 4.5 kilometers to go he was quickly passed by Pinot.
The Frenchman had planned his climb well and crossed the line first. Spaniard Óscar Rodriguez finished second at 25 seconds and Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko (+38 seconds) finished third.