Felix Gall has been showing tremendous form over the past few weeks, and today he has capitalized on it by taking his first pro win. Simultaneously, he has taken over the lead of the
Tour de Suisse.
"I'm overwhelmed by everything that happened. I don't really know what to say, but it's my first professional win and it's really great," Gall said in a post-race interview. "Wednesday I already felt very good, I'm in the shape of my life. So we already said during the meeting that we should try something. If we wanted to achieve a good result, we had to do something," continued the Austrian.
The Austrian finished second last afternoon at Villars-sur-Ollon showing great form, but this however only saw him climb to 9th in the overall classification. 1:07 minutes behind Mattias Skjelmose, the Austrian was allowed to leave the peloton when he attacked in the start of the final sequence of tough ascents together with Mikaël Cherel, eventually bridging across too to Stan Dewulf who briefly layed a helping heand.
“With the best legs I've ever had, I'm not going to wait in the peloton. I want to enjoy the leader's jersey and see what is possible," Gall explained. He quickly grew a gap of a minute, which extended even further over the final kilometers before the final hilltop. The Austrian however kept an extremely high pace, which saw him take the stage win, with over a minute to the GC group which also earned him the yellow jersey.
Despite being in yellow he does not become the favourite for the GC, tomorrow for a starters sees long passes and high altitude on the menu. "There are heavy climbs at altitude on Thursday, which is new to me. I don't know exactly what to expect from that, but with a view to the time trial I will have to gain some time on my competitors. I hope I can continue this line."
