Tour de Suisse
Tour de Suisse | June 10-18 | Switzerland
Arace of fluctuating fortunes and frequent shifts in overall leadership was eventually won by Katusha-alpecin’s Simon Spilak. The Slovenian became the sixth and final rider to wear the leader’s yellow jersey when he finished off devastating work from his team on stage seven’s huge summit finish to the Tiefenbach glacier with a decisive 9km solo attack.
Spilak got the better of a BMC team that, though impressive, were frustrated in their attempts to keep hold of the overall lead.
Rohan Dennis had looked primed to mount a GC challenge for the team when he obliterated the field in the opening time trial, but crashed out of contention the following day. Then — after retaining and swiftly losing the yellow jersey through Stefan Kung — Damiano Caruso took control of the race on stage four’s first mountain-top finish.
But Caruso, like every other rider, had no response to Spilak’s attack on the Tiefenbachferner, and was left with too much to do in the final time trial.
For Spilak, the summer is already a success; for BMC, at least its riders have shown they have the form to support Richie Porte’s bid to win the Tour.