The Spanish top talent Juan Ayuso has clinched a big victory at the Tour de Suisse. The stage was overshadowed by a serious fall by Swiss Gino Mäder.
The victory of the Spanish top talent Juan Ayuso in the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse was overshadowed by serious falls. Swiss Gino Mäder and American Magnus Sheffield had to be hospitalized on Thursday, according to Tour de Suisse director Olivier Senn.
Mäder has to be revived after a fall
The 26-year-old Swiss skied off the road towards the finish line and fell into a ravine. “Mäder was unresponsive, was revived on the spot and then transported by helicopter to the Chur hospital,” his team told Bahrain Victorious. The race doctor was quickly at the scene of the accident and immediately provided help, the message said.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Gino,” the team wrote. Magnus Sheffield (21) from the Ineos Grenadiers team fell in the same place, but the American got off lightly.
Ayuso wins by almost a minute
In the fight for the day’s victory, the front of the field initially didn’t notice anything from the falls. Juan Ayuso, 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 almost a minute ahead of 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.
Dane Skjelmose grabs yellow jersey
“It was a tough stage with a lot of climbs. I’ve always felt better. Together with my third place at the Vuelta, this is my biggest 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.
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.