DISCUSSION Tour de Suisse Stage 5 | Are João Almeida and Kévin Vauquelin the only two men capable of winning the final GC?

The fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse was arguably the queen stage of this edition, and it lived up to expectations, creating major chaos that turned the GC upside down.

Another strong breakaway was established, with the likes of Neilson Powless, Pello Bilbao or Aleksandr Vlasov as the main climbers in the group. However, the time gap was never big enough to let them dream with the stage win.

After handling the two first category climbs located in the first half of the stage, the riders headed to the decisive double ascent to Castaneda (4.5km at 9.8%). As expected, the race exploded there, with peloton being significantly reduced.

Race leader Romain Grégoire lost contact in the steepest sections and was never able to come back. The GC contenders were still together during the descent, but the second pass was very explosive and shattered the group into pieces.

Oscar Onley and João Almeida proved to be the two strongest men, distancing their rivals and arriving together to the finish line. Onley won a tight sprint over the Portuguese, while Felix Gall completed the podium. Kévin Vauquelin was fourth and stole the yellow jersey from Grégoire, who lost almost 7 minutes and left the top 10.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

Joao Almeida proves once again that he has more lives than a cat. Despite suffering when Julian Alaphilippe attacked on the final climb to Castaneda, the Portuguese rider managed the race perfectly to join the leaders at the key moment.

It all came down to a head-to-head with Oscar Onley, which the Briton ended up winning at the finish line. Although Almeida may not have been happy with second place after all his effort, he must be very proud of the result.

After stage 1, Joao Almeida said he thought a comeback was almost impossible, but now it is within his reach. Just 39 seconds behind the new yellow jersey, Kevin Vauquelin, the UAE Team Emirates rider is once again the big favourite to win the overall classification, which should be decided in the final time trial, barring any major surprises.

In terms of the Tour de France, João Almeida winning the Tour de Suisse would be spectacular news for Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian would ride the Grande Boucle with a star domestique who has just racked up three consecutive victories in one-week WorldTour tours: Itzulia, Romandie and Suisse.

Well well well, this is quite a comeback story. João Almeida is proving why he was considered the pre-race favourite and the reality is he is the strongest among the peloton present in Suisse. He's sprinted for bonus seconds, he's done long range attacks in high mountains and he's breaking the peloton in steep hills. If there is one person who deserves the win on this edition it is him.

Today we saw a stage that favoured the puncheurs instead of the climbers, and it was a more explosive guy who won in the end. Oscar Onley is one of the most underrated puncheurs around but he did great. Kevin Vauquelin also not a surprise considering his consistency on this race and performances on races like the Fleche Wallone and stage 2 of Tour 2024.

Julian Alaphilippe was a nice surprise for me, he's displaying a level which i haven't seen from him basically since his world champ years. On the negative side I'm a bit surprised that Romain Grégoire emptied the tank so early, i was expecting him to defend from his fellow french opponents.

Overall i think the situation looks good for Almeida and I'm confident that with the 39s Gap to Vauquelin, the portuguese rider will likely win the Tour de Suisse.

João Almeida had another big test and passed it once again. UAE worked for him as well, it was because of them that the breakaway was caught. They have managed to turn the reigning anarchy of the first stages around.

Romain Grégoire burst surprisingly early, after the impressive performances he displayed the first four days. He said goodbye to his GC aspirations today, it is a pity, but he should be satisfied. He’s shown really solid legs and will be dangerous at the Tour de France.

Julian Alaphilippe is peaking at the best moment again, right before the Tour. Tudor will need his best version there, they were pretty much invisible during the Giro. They will have to prove that giving them a wildcard was not a mistake by the organizers.

Race situation is in a very interesting point now. Vauquelin is the new leader, and he still holds 39 seconds over Almeida. Even if the Portuguese is proving to be in very strong shape, the same can be said of Vauquelin. Out of the remaining three stages, tomorrow is a fairly easy day where sprinters should prevail, and Saturday ends in a climb but the overall day is much less exigent than what it was today.

I think Vauquelin will not lose the jersey on Saturday and everything will be decided in the final uphill TT on Sunday. Almeida should be the favourite, but Vauquelin is an excellent time trialist as well, especially in uphill ones (he already won at the Etoile de Bessèges – Tour du Gard earlier this year). The GC will most likely be decided there and I think it will be very very tight.

Oscar Onley won and earned very much needed UCI points for Picnic PostNL, still his second professional victory. Even if he is in fourth, I don’t give him many chances to win the overall. I don’t see him strong enough to gain 1 minute on Almeida or 1:21 on Vauquelin. But he definitely can overtake Alaphilippe and I believe he will do it. Alaphilippe climbed very well for his standards (considering he has never been a pure climber) but visibly struggled in the last kilometres.

Special mention to Visma by the way, they have been almost invisible the whole race. Their best rider today was Bart Lemmen, who technically should be fighting for the GC, and he arrived 13:20 behind Onley and Almeida…