Last year Felix Gall had an absolute breakthrough at the Tour de Suisse last year, winning a stage in style, leading the race for a day and fighting for the yellow jersey until the very end before going on to also impress at the Tour de France. After a disappointing year thus far, the Austrian looks to be back in form again in Switzerland.
Although the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider managed to finish in the Top10 of Paris-Nice, he abandoned Itzulia Basque Country and wasn't present in any other World Tour event until this week. Gall is a pure climber, and in this race finds the terrain that suits him perfectly. Long, steep and high-altitude climbs are all in the menu and on the first of five summit finishes, the 26-year old rode to eighth place.
He finished in the same group as the likes of Enric Mas and Cian Uijtdebroeks, "I'm very happy with this Top 10. I'm especially happy to have found my legs again, because I haven't felt great in recent days. The team has done a good job again and we're going to seize the opportunities every day."
Gall is now 10th in the overall classification but the summit finish in the Gotthard Pass is in no way the hardest of the week. Today's summit finish in Cari for example is over 11 kilometers long at 8%, but in the next few days even more challenges will be on the menu for the peloton.
Gall won the queen stage of the Tour de France last year in Courchevel and this was in the third week. The longer the race develops and the harder the terrain; on paper the best suited it will be for Gall who should have a sole leadership at the Tour when it comes to chasing the overall classification and improving on last year's eighth position.
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