“The peloton had to ride at 70kph” - Jhonatan Narvaez’s cold calculation breaks the chase in storm-hit Tour de Suisse victory

Jhonatan Narvaez was doing the maths while the Tour de Suisse peloton was still chasing through the storm. With no radio in the final 30 kilometres of stage 3, the Ecuadorian had only the gap, the speed and the road ahead to judge whether he and Xandro Meurisse could survive to Bad Ragaz.

The answer, in Narvaez’s mind, was already clear. The pair were still holding 40 to 50 seconds on the soaked run-in, and behind them the bunch needed a chase speed he simply did not believe was possible.

Stage 3 had looked like the clearest sprint chance of the race. Early climbing, heavy rain and the late move from Narvaez and Meurisse changed that completely, with the two leaders staying away while the reduced bunch arrived just too late.

Narvaez finished it off for UAE Team Emirates - XRG, beating Meurisse in the sprint after the pair held their nerve through the wet finale. Magnus Cort led the peloton home for third, with Marijn van den Berg fourth and Mathieu van der Poel fifth.

Speaking to Cycling Pro Net after the stage, Narvaez said the finale was controlled more by calculation than panic. “I think the two of us were calculating it,” he said. “I did not have the radio in the last 30 kilometres, so I only had the information I was getting, but the peloton had to ride at 70kph. It was impossible. We were riding at 55kph. It was 40 seconds, 50 seconds. They were not going to catch us.”

Narvaez went into the sprint as the faster finisher, but Meurisse had already done enough to make the finale more dangerous than a simple two-up mismatch.

“No. In the end, you should not underestimate any rider,” said Narvaez when asked if he had been surprised by Meurisse’s work on the climb. “All the riders are here to win. They have come from altitude, they are preparing well, so you cannot underestimate anyone. Of course, I knew I was the fastest, but he is a Belgian rider. You cannot underestimate him.”

Narvaez had come into the race after a quieter spell at home, and even he admitted the strength of his own ride was not something he had fully expected. “I rested well at home,” he said. “Honestly, I did not think I would find myself like this, and I am happy to have taken the victory today.”

The victory gave UAE another win in a race they already controlled through Tadej Pogacar’s yellow jersey. Pogacar stayed safe in the bunch and retained his commanding GC lead, while Narvaez turned a day that had seemed set for the sprinters into a second UAE stage win in three days.

The Tour de Suisse now heads to the stage 4 individual time trial in Aarburg, with Pogacar still in yellow and UAE carrying momentum from two very different victories.