Another UAE exhibition at the Tour de Suisse! Adam Yates wins stage 7, hand-in-hand with Joao Almeida

Victory for Adam Yates on stage 7 of the Tour de Suisse 2024 in another exhibition of UAE Team Emirates. He attacked with João Almeida, they reached the finish line hand in hand and this time the victory went to the British rider.

Queen stage of the Swiss race with three hard climbs of different mileage but to the same port that started as always with a lot of activity. The first quality breakaway was formed very soon with Einer Rubio trying to give shine to Movistar Team. Joining the Colombian were Harold Lopez, Finlay Pickering, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Johannes Staune-Mittet, Sylvain Moniquet and Maxim Van Gils.

At 80 kilometers from the finish line the advantage of the 8 breakaway riders rose to two minutes just as they began the approach to the very long climb to the Col de la Croix. It was clear that UAE was not going to let the breakaway go too far and at the beginning of the climb the advantage was down to a minute and a half. As if that wasn't enough, INEOS Grenadiers put on their classic uphill train, did the job for their leaders Egan Bernal and Tom Pidcock and made the climb at a hellish pace.

Staune-Mittet topped the Col de la Croix with 40 seconds on Rubio and company and 50 on a peloton that had let the breakaway breathe. The Norwegian Visma rider increased his lead to more than a minute on the descent. With 35 to go his chances of winning were nil, but at least it looked like he was going to be in the lead at the start of the final climb.

Thus, Staune-Mittet maintained a lead of less than a minute until the start of the final climb to Villars-sur-Ollon and was quickly caught. It was INEOS Grenadiers who was again pulling hard at the start of the climb. The Britons wanted the victory, but the winners were once again UAE.

In the fight for the stage, however, Egan Bernal was not up to the work of his team and it was again Adam Yates and Joao Almeida who returned to play for the win with an attack with 1.5 km to go. The victory went to the British rider ahead of the Portuguese rider, although both rode hand in hand at the finish line, ahead of the competition. American Matthew Riccitello surprised to a brilliant third place on the road.