Another one for João Almeida - UAE leader wins stage 7 at Tour de Suisse and cuts Kévin Vauquelin's lead
Cycling
As the Tour de Suisse progresses, João Almeida gets himself closer and closer to the lead of the race. Whilst he has not been able to distance his rivals on the final climb of the day, he has won stage 7 and has taken off a few more seconds of his main rivals.
The seventh stage of the race did not have a difficult start but nevertheless there were big moves and a lot of strong riders went up the road. A breakaway of seven was formed with Aleksandr Vlasov, Quinn Simmons, Tiesj Benoot, Hugo Houle, Frank van den Broek, William Lecerf Junior and Felix Engelhardt.
The roads were mostly flat throughout the day however and it wasn't a too difficult task to control the group. The action once again started early in the finale, with the penultimate climb seeing deadly attacks from Felix Gall and Felix Gall, who were only followed by race leader Kévin Vauquelin, Oscar Onley and Julian Alaphilippe.
The group had a key piece in van den Broek who held on from the breakaway and went on to pace the entire way to the final climb, maintaining the gap to the chasing group. There, Felix Gall attacked early in the climb with over 3 kilometers to go whilst Almeida took full responsibility of the chasing group with all rivals in the wheel.
Almeida's pace was strong and caught the Austrian entering the final kilometer, but then the riders rode conservatively until the final sprint. Yellow jersey himself Vauquelin launched a dashing early sprint that opened a meaningful gap and the plan almost worked. João Almeida followed the wheel of Oscar Onley and in the final 50 meters the Portuguese went through to take the stage win and main bonifications.
Fin MajorCycling Journalist
Fin Major is a UK-based writer at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2024. He is the site’s main writer for FAQs and evergreen explainers and has written around 2,000 pieces for the platform. Alongside this work, he focuses on in-depth analysis and covers the biggest races on the calendar, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, providing clear context around performance trends, tactics, and key storylines.
In his reporting, Fin uses reputable data sources such as ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available. Outside of writing, Fin is an active cyclist, which supports his practical understanding of the sport and its demands.
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parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
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