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Pinot powers to Tour de Suisse summit finish win, Higuita snatches back yellow jersey for Bora-Hansgrohe

Colombian leads Geraint Thomas by two seconds before Sunday's concluding chrono

June 18, 2022
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Bora-Hansgrohe might have lost the Tour de Suisse race lead through unfortunate circumstances on Friday–Alexandr Vlasov abandoned the race with COVID-19 the day after pulling on the yellow jersey–but on Saturday the team went back to the top of the GC via Sergio Higuita, who was the best of the favourites on a summit finish. Having assumed the race lead Friday, Jakob Fuglsang went into the stage with only a second over Geraint Thomas and is now third. Thibaut Pinot claimed the stage victory from a strong breakaway group.

You can watch the concluding stage of the Tour de Suisse on FloBikes.

The Course

As on Friday, there was an big early climb and an HC-rated summit finish. On Saturday the Cat. 1 Lukmanierpass crested 123 km from the finish and the ascent to Mulbun in the Principality of Liechtenstein was 12.6 km of 8.7 percent. It was another scorching day.

A platoon of refugees broke free before the Lukmanierpass and rolled over the top with a 4:00 gap on the Israel-Premier Tech-led peloton. There was some real climbing power in the fugitive group: Pinot, Jon Izagirre and Alexey Lutsenko all had the chops to win atop Mulbun.

Two Cat. 3 climbs sat between the Lukmanierpass and Mulbun, and it was here that Israel-Premier Tech and Ineos started to chip away at the gap. The breakaway still had over three minutes as the Liechtensteinian climb began.

Izagirre skipped clear and Lutsenkto joined him. Pinot started to bridge over. Back in the peloton, only Canada’s Hugo Houle remained with Fuglsang.

Hugo Houle cools down after completing his work for Fuglsang on the final climb.

With 10 km to go Izagirre was solo. Lutsenko and Pinot formed the main chase. With 2 km to go Pinot made it over to Izagirre and then dispatched him. Oscar Rodriguez of Movistar finished in second place, 25 seconds back.

Fuglsang tried to put time into Thomas, but he didn’t get far. Higuita, who was 10 seconds down on Fuglsang at the start of the day, made his move with 1.6 km remaining. Thomas attacked Fuglsang and crossed the line 11 seconds after Higuita and 18 seconds before Israel-Premier Tech’s Dane.

Higuita’s lead over Thomas is only two seconds. He’ll be hard pressed to hold off the Brit in Sunday’s concluding time trial, a real test at 25.6 km.

2022 Tour de Suisse Stage 7
1) Thibaut Pinot (France/Groupama-FDJ) 5:06:39
2) Oscar Rodriguez (Spain/Movistar) +0:24
3) Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana) +0:38
21) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +4:02

2022 Tour de Suisse GC
1) Sergio Higuita (Colombia/Bora-Hansgrohe) 32:38:38
2) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Ineos Grenadiers) +0:02
3) Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark/Israel-Premier Tech) +0:19
16) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +5:17