The awesome Juan Ayuso proved once again why he is viewed as a Grand Tour winner of the future, taking the biggest win of his career to date on stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse, moving back into GC contention.
The final mountain stage. It's the third consecutive tough day in the race and possibly a decisive one. Three passes, but the attacks will come late on. The Albulapass' summit is over 2000 meters in altitude and it's a proper long and steep climb.
Read also
With a big, 19-man breakaway going clear on the early climbs, some very talented riders were up ahead of the bunch including Wout van Aert, Sergio Higuita, Rui Costa, Marc Hirschi, Neilson Powless, winner of the stage 1 time-trial Stefan Kung and best placed in the GC, Gorka Izagirre.
As the break began to ascend the final climb of the day, things began to split up. With groups split across the road, a select group was upfront.
Proving to be the strongest climbers in the break were Antonio Tiberi, Powless and Costa with the trio dropping all their rivals.
Back down the road, the GC battle began to ignite. Felix Gall attacking with only an elite handful able to follow him. Missing from that group were both Remco Evenepoel and Mattias Skjelmose.
As Juan Ayuso attacked from the Gall group the time gap to the leaders dropped under a minute with the trio up front beginning to get tetchy and trying to break free from each other.
Soon, Ayuso hit the front and immediately came around, setting about riding clear solo.
Reaching the top of the climb, Ayuso had a 33 second advantage over Costa and Tiberi with the race leader Gall 1:03 down on Ayuso, meaning the Yellow Jersey was very much in play.
Further back again, Evenepoel had been dropped from a group with Skjelmose that was chasing to catch the Gall group.
Knowing he could move into the race lead, Ayuso was taking risks on the descent, hitting 100kmph according to one of the camera bikes.
After securing the stage win, the clock started ticking with Ayuso knowing he needed to make up the 1:18 deficit he started the day with.
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- WTF is Pogi's hater Zonneveld talking about??? He was against Pogi waving to Slovenian fans from an organisation car as fans caught a glimpse of Pogi at the European Championships in Slovenia. The S.O.B. couldn't resist poking fun at his attention-grabbing appearance. What Zonneveld says has no relevance.PogiSloFans15-11-2026
- ❤️Lozza15-11-2026
- The greatest ever is a crazy claim. But in discussions about sport in our local media, among people with no particular interest in cycling, he has been the first person they've thought of when giving examples of exceptional athletes.Hills3315-11-2026
- Urska may be less keen on a cafe if keeping it afloat will fall to her, so maybe just a nice dream!Hills3315-11-2026
- Raise thine hand if the money you have made for retirement slips away on poor investments.Most of us will outlive our financial comforts because we don't have the financial acumen to ensure a comfortable lifelong retirement and that is a statistical fact not my opinion.Many millionaires have pissed their money away or had it taken away by so called conniving "financial advisors".The world of wealth is a dangerous place that most of us will never experience nor appreciate.
Brucegel15-11-2026 - You are interested in Pogi for one reason only, you feel like you are somehow related because you share some vague geographical identity. Other than that you have very little interest in cycling as all your posts show, if it can’t be connected to Pogi you have nothing to post. That said, recent activity here shows we are attracting quite a crowd from his region.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- From knowing past cycling stars with shops I can only say, think it through. Not only is it mundane after a while but it really doesn’t take you out of the limelight, in the end you’ll be trying to stay away from the place yourself whilst all your fans keep coming for you.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- Careful investment? I think he can live very comfortably with zero investments, what does he need more? The world would do well if more people set a target for how much they need or would make them “happy” and then stop worrying about perpetually having to make more.Jumpyjohn15-11-2026
- Yes, Roglic could theoretically have beaten Sepp. Jonas must have had complete confidence that he could come back and win the Vuelta another year. Visma had not allowed Roglic to ride the Tour that year, so his future did not look so bright, despite his narrow Giro win..Hills3315-11-2026
- So far, a good series about riders before my time, even if the text feels AI generated like so much on this site. About the rider, he seems like one of many who are active fan favorites but don’t survive in the stories of cycling, a few decades later - I didn’t really know anything about him and this was a good read, thank you!RidesHills15-11-2026
Loading
Juan Ayuso showing off his descending skills. 🔥 #TDS23
Write a comment