Tour de Suisse: Evenepoel dedicates win to Gino Mäder in time-neutralized penultimate stage

Clad in a cloak of mourning, the Tour de Suisse’s penultimate stage saw Remco Evenepoel earn his seventh victory of the season, dedicating the win to Gino Mäder. Because the race times were taken with 25 km to go, Evenepoel didn’t gain time on the three riders ahead of him in the GC. Race leader Mattias Skjelmose takes an 8-second lead over Felix Gall into Sunday’s time trial conclusion.

With a dark cloud of Gino Mäder’s death hanging over the race, the Tour de Suisse continued on Saturday, the organizers deciding to go ahead with the final two stages.

After an emotional day and a very touching ride in memory of Gino Mäder, it was decided in consultation with the family of Gino Mäder that the Tour de Suisse Men 2023 will continue. The 3rd Tour de Suisse Women will also go ahead.https://t.co/iRkkT9nv00 pic.twitter.com/5Atoiz8Wtj

— Tour de Suisse (@tds) June 16, 2023

Three teams–Mäder’s Bahrain-Victorious, Tudor Pro Cycling and Intermarché-Circus-Wanty–all withdrew from the race before the start.

Four categorized climbs were spread evenly over 183 km. The penultimate stage was tweaked in light of the tragedy. The times would be taken at the 25 km to go mark, before the climb of the Cat. 3 Ottenberg (2.6 km of 7.9 percent). Then, whoever wanted to contest the stage could go all out and the rest of the field would drift home.

Mauro Schmid won’t start stage 7 of the #TourdeSuisse2023, which will see the GC time being taken with 25 kilometers to go. pic.twitter.com/zfKsO1UNRT

— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) June 17, 2023

Clearly a pall was hanging over the race. There was no breakaway. Over the first three categorized climbs, nobody bothered challenging KOM leader Pascal Eenkhorn, and he only picked up two points.

After the 25 km point where the times were taken, the racing started in earnest on the Ottenberg. Wout Van Aert, Tom Pidcock and Evenepoel were up for it. Evenepoel burst up the road with 17 km to race. With the bit in his teeth, the Belgian pulled out an irresistible gap and soloed home. He pointed to the sky as he crossed the line.

Sunday is the somewhat frivolous conclusion to the race, a 25.7-km time trial from St. Gallen to Abtwil.

2023 Tour de Suisse Stage 7
1) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Soudal-QuickStep)
2) Wout Van Aert (Belgium/Jumbo-Visma)
3) Bryan Coquard (France/Cofidis)
26) Hugo Houle (Canada/Israel-Premier Tech) +4:56

2023 Tour de Suisse GC
1) Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark/Trek-Segafredo)
2) Felix Gall (Austria/AG2R-Citroën) 0:08
3) Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE-Emirates) +0:18
4) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Soudal-QuickStep) +0:46