Oscar Onley pips Joao Almeida for stage 5 win at 2025 Tour de Suisse; Kevin Vauquelin takes over race lead

Joao Almeida has destroyed the 2025 Tour de Suisse once again on stage 5. This time around though, the Portuguese couldn't take the stage win, being out-kicked at the line by Oscar Onley. In the GC meanwhile, Kevin Vauquelin takes the Maillot Jaune.

An elite five-rider group formed the breakaway on stage 5. Among them, Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain - Victorious), Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana Team), Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Javier Romo (Movistar Team). Best placed of the attackers in the GC at the start of the day was Vlasov at 6:42 down.

The time gap was managed well enough by the peloton that Vlasov was never seriously threatening the race lead, but into the final 45km of the day, the leaders still held more than two minutes over the peloton.

With two ascents of the Castaneda in the finale, the race immediately exploded the first time up. In the break, Vlasov and Bilbao proved strongest, dropping all of their companions. More importantly behind however, the Maillot Jaune himself Romain Gregoire was getting dropped by the rest of his GC rivals. By the top of the first ascent, Gregoire was already 1:30 down on the likes of Joao Almeida, Kevin Vauquelin and Julian Alaphilippe.

Ahead of the final climb of the Castaneda, Bilbao and Vlasov had been caught by the leading GC croup, but Gregoire was still around a minute further back.

Once the climbing began again towards the finish line, the first of the GC group to launch a big attack was Alaphilippe, 3rd in GC at the start of the day., alongside Team Picnic PostNL leader Oscar Onley. By 3km to go though, Onley had dropped Alaphilippe and moved clear solo.

Leading the charge behind the Scot was Almeida, who, in his typical style, was timing his efforts to perfection, and taking the lead into the last 2km. Through the Flamme Rouge, Onley and Almeida had clearly distanced all their rivals. Both the stage win and the overall race lead were still up for grabs though, with Vauquelin fighting hard to limit losses to Almeida and get into the Maillot Jaune himself. In the sprint for the stage, Onley took it on the throw ahead of Almeida.