Almeida bests rivals after thrilling finale at Tour of Switzerland, but Vauquelin comfortably keeps leader’s jersey

After five stages, Kévin Vauquelin had taken the leader’s jersey from fellow Frenchman Romain Grégoire. The Arkéa-B&B Hotels rider still held a 39-second advantage over João Almeida going into stage seven, though the Portuguese rider had been consistently closing the gap in each mountain stage. Could he take the lead in this difficult seventh stage? It was shaping up to be a tight battle.

Several breakaway riders hoped for a shot at the stage win in the run to Emmetten. This led to a nervous opening phase, during which Matthew Riccitello (Israel - Premier Tech) hit the deck early. Bart Lemmen tried to escape, but the Visma | Lease a Bike rider wasn’t given any room. About 15 kilometers later, his teammate Tiesj Benoot did manage to get away and that turned out to be the day’s decisive break.

Together with six others, Tiesj Benoot managed to break away. He was joined by fellow Belgian Junior Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step), Hugo Houle (Israel – Premier Tech), Felix Engelhardt (Jayco-AlUla), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), stage 3 winner Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek), and Frank van den Broek (Picnic PostNL). There was little threat to the GC contenders, as Vlasov was the closest in the standings, over 12 minutes behind. Still, the peloton kept the pace high.

The breakaway never got more than a 3-minute gap and was first to tackle the brutal climb to Schwändi. That’s where most sprinters dropped back to form a grupetto, while the gap to the breakaway steadily shrank. Tudor saw an opportunity for Julian Alaphilippe, who was still sitting second overall between Vauquelin and Almeida. The attackers’ hopes of a stage win began to fade.

Heading into the climb to Bürgenstock, the gap had already narrowed. Simmons and Vlasov tried to push on, but the race exploded behind them. The first big move came from Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R), with Vauquelin, Almeida, Alaphilippe, and Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) all responding. They bridged up to the leaders, where Van den Broek was still riding. Seeing his teammate Onley arrive, Van den Broek immediately went to the front and began setting the pace. This meant the group of GC favorites, plus the Dutchman, crested the climb with a lead.

Van den Broek emptied the tank for the Scotsman in the white jersey, helping the group stay clear of the chasers all the way to the foot of the final climb to Emmetten. At that point, they still had a 30-second gap over the group containing Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) and Lennard Kämna (Lidl-Trek). On the final climb, it was time for the GC favorites to battle it out, Van den Broek’s job was done after a tremendous effort.

Almeida set a strong pace, but Gall was feeling good and launched an attack. The Austrian opened up a gap on his rivals, while Alaphilippe, Vauquelin, and Onley stayed put. But everyone knows the Portuguese favorite is a master of pacing on climbs. Almeida steadily turned up the pressure and gradually closed the gap to the leader. That spelled the end for Alaphilippe, who had to drop off.

Once they caught Gall, the pace stalled, allowing the former world champion to return to the group. Then it was Onley’s turn to accelerate, but no one gave him space. It became a cat-and-mouse game among the favorites. Vauquelin launched his sprint early, but was overtaken by Almeida and Onley. The Portuguese rider took the win, just ahead of the Scot. On Sunday, Almeida will need to make up 33 seconds on his French rival.