The Freiburg professional cyclist Nico Denz has at the 85. Tour de Suisse celebrated the greatest success of his career.
The 28-year-old from Team DSM won the sixth stage after 177.5 kilometers in the sprint of a breakaway group of five at the mountain finish in Moosalp on Friday and thus clinched only the third professional victory of his career. Denz prevailed in front of Frenchman Clement Champoussin and Spaniard José Herrada.
Denz, who drove a tactically clever race, had previously only had two stage wins at the Tour of Slovakia and the Tour de Vendee to be accounted for. In addition, he also finished second in the tenth stage of the Giro d’Italia in 2018.
“Finally I did it. I’m not usually the one who wins. I work more in the shadows”, said Denz, who was honored with a large cowbell on the pedestal. “I felt fantastic. On the last climb I had to keep up with Masnada, he almost broke me. I thought I lost the sprint.”
Fuglsang in yellow
The Dane Jakob Fuglsang is in the lead in the overall standings after the Russian Alexander Wlassow from the German Bora-hansgrohe team had to finish the race in first place because of a positive corona test on Friday morning.
The UAE team and the Bahrain Victorious and Alpecin-Fenix teams even withdrew their teams completely because of several corona cases after the Dutch Jumbo Visma team had already dropped out the day before. A total of 29 drivers did not compete for the sixth stage, but the tour continued. In addition to Wlassow, who only took over the yellow jersey on Thursday, the Bora team also met the German Anton Palzer.