The Spanish top talent Juan Ayuso has achieved another great success in cycling at the Tour de Suisse. The yellow jersey went to Mattias Skjelmose from Denmark.
The 20-year-old from Barcelona, teammate of superstar Tadej Pogacar, won the mountain stage of the Tour de Suisse over 211 kilometers and three difficult passes from Fiesch to La Punt in an impressive manner, single-handedly with a lead of almost a minute over the group of favorites. Ayuso had finished third overall at the Vuelta last year at the age of just 19 on his first Grand Tour.
Ayuso in third place overall
“It was a difficult stage with a lot of climbs. I’ve always felt better. Together with my third place at the Vuelta, this is my greatest success. Now we’re fighting for the general classification. It’s going to be tough, but I’m trying,” said Ayuso , who has moved up to third place and is just 18 seconds behind Mattias Skjelmose. The Dane reclaimed the yellow jersey on stage five with a second place climb from Austria’s Felix Gall, who is now eight seconds back in second.
Meanwhile, Belgian world champion Remco Evenepoel continued to lose time and is now 46 seconds down in fourth place overall. The best German on Thursday was the two-time German champion Maximilian Schachmann, 4:49 minutes behind in 22nd place. In the overall ranking, the native of Berlin is 16th.
Mäder and Sheffield fall badly
The stage was overshadowed by serious falls of the Swiss Gino Mäder and the American Magnus Sheffield. According to Swiss media, Tour de Suisse director Olivier Senn said both were on their way to the hospital. “MAccording to our low level of knowledge, agnus Sheffield is less seriously injured. Gino Mäder suffered serious injuries, but I can’t go into more detail about them“Said Senn. Mäder’s team Bahrain Victorious confirmed the serious fall of the 26-year-old, but did not give any details either.
On Friday, the sprinters can hope for their chance on the sixth stage over 215.3 kilometers from La Punt to Oberwil-Lieli when the finale runs over largely flat terrain.